A Typological Study On The Classifier Reduplication Of Chinese Dialects

In Mandarin, classifier can be reduplicated in the form of CC (C= classifier), one-CC and one-C-one-C, expressing the meaning of'every','many'and'one after another'.In the past few decades, the meaning of classifier reduplication in Mandarin Chinese has attracted great attention of many linguists. However, there is little research done concerning the typological study of classifier reduplication in Chinese dialects. Most of the papers only investigate into a single dialect, and therefore lacks a systematic comparison and description. To better understand the regularities of classifier reduplication in Chinese dialects, this thesis adopts the method of typology and makes a comprehensive study on reduplicated classifiers in 39 collected dialects, including the different forms of classifier reduplication in these dialects and their corresponding meaning. The 39 collected dialects are mainly spoken in the areas of Hunan, Guizhou, Shanxi, Yunnan, Hubei, Sichuan, Shanxi, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Chongqing, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Jiang Xi province.By comparing Mandarin classifier reduplication with that in dialects, this thesis finds that the form of classifier reduplication in dialects not only include CC, one-CC and one-C-one-C that are the same as Mandarin, but also include CCC and CXC. Moreover, classifier reduplication in dialects is similar with Mandarin not only in form, but in meaning as well. Because classifier reduplication in dialects can not only express the meaning of 'every','many' and 'one after another' that are commonly seen in Mandarin, but also subjective large quantity and subjective small quantity as well.At first, the meaning of 'every' exists both in Mandarin and in dialects. In dialects, there are five forms which express the meaning of 'every':CC, CCC, CXC, one-CC and one-C-one-C. This thesis says that if a dialect can use any one of one-CC, one-C-one-C or CXC to express the meaning of 'every', then CC in the dialect can also be adopted to express this meaning. Also, if a dialect can apply both of CC and CXC to express 'every', the use of CC is limited. Besides, the thesis finds that the use of CC, one-CC and one-C-one-C is the same as that in Mandarin, for they all express an objective generality, while CXC puts its emphasis on subjective generality. The subjectivity of CXC is reflected in two aspects:one is subjective quantity; the other is subjective emotional color.Classifier reduplication in dialects, the same as that in Mandarin, has the meaning of 'one after another'. On the whole, three forms of classifier reduplication in dialects can be used to express this meaning:one-CC, one-C-one-C and CXC. When these three forms express 'one after another', they only function as adverbial. The use of one-CC and one-C-one-C is the same as that in Mandarin when they express 'one after another'. In the case of CXC, besides the meaning of 'one after another', it can also be used to emphasize the ways of measurement. Furthermore, by studoneng the distribution of these three forms in different dialects, this thesis comes to the following conclusions:first, in most cases, a dialect has two forms at most to express the meaning of 'one after another'; second, generally speaking, all the collected dialects have at least one reduplicated form to express the meaning of 'one after another'; third, if a dialect can employ both the form of CXC and reduplicated numeral classifier to express the meaning of 'one after another', then the form of CXC is more frequently used by local people.The meaning of 'subjective small quantity' exists only in mandarin classifier reduplication. Of the investigated 39 dialects, there are altogether two forms that express the meaning of subjective small quantity:XCC and CXC. By comparing these two forms, the thesis finds that when expressing this meaning, both the geographical and syntactic distribution of XCC are restricted. On the contrary, CXC can denote subjective large quantity in a variety of dialects and meanwhile has no syntactic restrictions, which may be concerned with the semantic feature of X. Moreover, the thesis has generalized an implicational universal as follows:when expressing the meaning of subjective large quantity, XCC and CXC are generally in a complementary distribution:if in a dialect, XCC is used to express 'subjective large quantity', then CXC is not allowed to imply this meaning; if a dialect chooses CXC to emphasize subjective large quantity, then XCC is not allowed to express this meaning.The meaning of 'subjective small quantity' exists only in mandarin classifier reduplication. In the investigated 39 dialects, there are altogether two forms that express the meaning of subjective small quantity:XCC and CXC, both of which have a wide syntactic distribution. But when observed from the point of geographical distribution, CXC only appears in Xinan dialect and Gan dialect. This thesis concludes that CXC expresses both the meaning of subjective large quantity and small quantity. Which meaning it expresses is depended on X. When X is ba, it implies subjective small quantity. The fact that'C-ba-C expresses subjective small quantity may originate from the semantic feature of ba (Jiang 2014). Besides, the thesis generalizes an implicational universal:if in a dialect, CXC can express subjective small quantity, then it can also be used to emphasize subjective large quantity in this dialect, but not vice versa. In terms of XCC, it is mainly used to express subjective small quantity. When XCC expresses subjective large quantity, it should be restricted by factors as syntactic location, and the meaning of classifier itself.By studying the reduplicated classifiers and their corresponding meanings in the collected dialects, the thesis concludes that almost all of the dialects we investigated can use reduplicative classifiers to express'every'and'one after another', but not all of them can apply classifier reduplication to denote subjective large quantity and subjective small quantity.