Classifiers And Plurality Across Languages In China

This thesis discusses how the classifiers and plurality are employed across the languages spoken in China.It focuses on the plural forms in the classifier languages.The languages examined mainly include 140 languages.The thesis is divided into six chapters.Chapter 1 reviews the relevant studies about classifier and plurality.The research goals,language samples,parameters and sources of data are also introduced in this chapter.Chapter 2 includes an overview of classifiers and plurals in 140 languages spoken in China.Chapter 3 analyzes the typological features of plural expressions in the languages spoken in China,by comparing Gil's(2013)400 languages sample.In particular,the plural marking and animacy hierarchy,the coding of(pro)nominal plurality,the morphological order of plural markers as well as the restrictions of plural makers,are examined.Chapter 4 discusses the relationship between classifier types and plural forms,the word order of head noun and modifiers as well as the morphological order of plural markers.Chapter 5 gives a preliminary description and discussion on the occurrence of the plural markers and classifiers within a sentence.Chapter 6 summarizes the work.The conclusions of this dissertation include two aspects.On the one hand,on the basis of three types of languages:"classifier-developed languages","classifier-developing languages" and "classifier-underdeveloped languages",we summarize the patterns of plural expressions in Chinese languages.1.The implicational scale of plural marking in Chinese languages is consistent with world languages,following the animacy hierarchy:kinship terms>other humans>animals>inanimates.2.The more developed the classifier system in a language is,the less morphological and grammatical plural expression is.The most common way of plural expression in languages involves changing the morphological form,especially by suffix;however,in classifier-developed languages,it is more likely to see plural words or morphemes used to indicate nominal plurality.3.The development of classifiers in languages only affects the plural codings of nouns and demonstratives,other than pronouns.For pronouns,affixation and phonetic inflection are used to indicate plurality.The demonstratives indicate plurality by being combined with collective classifiers in classifier-developed languages or by using affixes or clitics in classifier-underdeveloped languages.The reduplication of interrogative pronouns indicates plurality in the latter languages while the interrogative pronouns in the former languages hardly have the category of numbers.4.As for pronouns,in the languages spoken in China,except Kam-Tai languages,the plural markers are always postposed.Classifier-underdeveloped languages follow the order of"N-P1",while in classifier-developed languages the plural morphemes or plural words are more likely to be preposed.Moreover,when collective classifiers are used to indicate plurality,they are often preposed,while the plural demonstrative,generic pronoun or other word means are often postposed to have the same function.5.The plural markers(including plural words)in the languages of China follow a implicational hierarchy:Numerals Individual Classifiers(Collective Classifiers)Quantifiers,which means that the plural markers co-occur much more easily with quantifiers than numerals.On the other hand,the relationship between classifier and plurality can be summarized in two aspects.1.Neither echo classifiers nor common classifiers can reflect the development of classifiers and the situation of plural markers.Indefinite measure word can only be found in classifier-developed languages and can be used as plural markers.Besides,it is more common for indefinite measure words than collective classifiers to be used to indicate plurality of demonstrative pronouns.2.We draw a conclusion on implicational universal of word(/morpheme)order.In NPs of a language,if plural markers are preposed before nouns,so are numerals.Moreover,in a language where numerals are preposed and collective classifiers are taken as plural markers,preposition of plural makers is unmarked,postposition is marked.