A Study On Chinese Measure Words Of HanShu

Chinese measure words had been recorded early in Oracle period, and it is one of the important features of the Sino-Tibetan language. It also is one of the most ethnic characteristics of the parts of speech in Chinese expression system. In this paper, the quantifiers in HanShu were exhausted to the types of descriptions and analysis as the research object. The author is trying to show the rule of combination and grammatical functions about Chinese measure words, and want to further strengthen the research of the evolution history of the Chinese measure words by lasted contrast.The introduction part of this paper first introduces an overview of Chinese measure words and the corpus value of HanShu. Then the author makes a review of previous studies from two aspects such as the naming and definition of Chinese measure words and the ancient Chinese measure words research profile. And at last, the author introduces the value and significance of this study and the research methods. Chapter one divides the quantifiers in HanShu into two categories, that is, quantifier-noun and quantifier-verb and analyzes the example and meaning of each word, with reference to the explanation of the original meaning and the extend meaning in ShuoWenJieZi, ErYa and ZhouLi etc.Chapter two analyzes the usage of Chinese measure words in HanShu. It discusses the regularities of the quantifiers and the grammatical functions. There have been a significant part which has rich and varied forms about the combinations of the quantifiers with nouns, numerals and verbs in Han Dynasty. From the lexical function, word formation and conformation have been also appeared in HanShu; from the syntactic function, quantifiers can be done as subject, adverbial, predicate, object, complement, and so on.Chapter three in a evolutionary view, draw a outline of the change and development of the quantifiers by historical contrast. Through comparative method, this chapter investigates the condition and position of the quantifiers in Han Dynasty. A compare will be made between HanShu and ZuoZhuan, Shiji, SanGuoZhi, which supporting materials of the nearly time with HanShu. The purpose is to summarize the law of the evolution and development about Chinese measure words.