A Cognitive Study Of The Conversion Mechanism Of Verbs To Classifiers In Chinese

The existing studies on Chinese classifiers converted from verbs are very rare,and most of them are limited to a certain kind of words that share some semantic features.This thesis combines qualitative analysis with quantitative research,base on linguistic unit concept frame and conceptual metonymy,to study the conversion mechanism of Chinese verbs to classifiers.From three commonly used Chinese classifiers dictionaries,this thesis lists all classifiers that converted from verbs(105 in total)to make a research.The classifiers studied in this thesis can be classified into two types according to different metonymy mechanisms:ACTION FOR OUTCOME and ACTION FOR QUANTITY.The former far outnumbers the latter.A verb can activate an action event concept frame that consists of several levels.There are fixed elements on each level:AGENT,ACTION and PATIENT on the first level;ARRTIBUTE OF AGENT,ATTRIBUTE OF PETIENT,and COMPONENT OF ACTION,such as PURPOSE OF ACTION,PATH OF ACTION,OUTCOME OF ACTION,PRODUCT OF ACTION,MANNER OF ACTION,PLACE OF ACTION,TIME OF ACTION,TOOL OF ACTION and so forth on the second level;CONTENT OF COMPONENT OF ACTION,such as CONTENT OF PURPOSE,CONTENT OF OUTCOME,CATEGORY OF PLACES etc.on the third level.Theoretically,there may be the forth and the fifth level too;it is inexhaustible.Metonymy is the most important mechanism of word class conversion.In essence,conversion of verbs to classifiers involves the conversion of two contiguous concepts,and in form it is the substitution of one word class category for another.In an action event concept frame,the action/activity is an element on the first level that consists of many components.The ACTION itself is one of the most important and most salient one;therefore,people may notice it unconsciously and use it to substitute QUANTITY or OUTCOME OF ACTION.A verb is converted to a classifier in this way.