A Contrastive Study On The Structure Of "Numeral-Adjective-Classifier-Noun" In English And Chinese Oriented To Teaching Chinese As A Foreign Language

The "Numeral-Adjective-Classifier-Noun" is a common pattern in both Chinese and English.However,previous studies have not yet been sufficient,let alone the contrastive research on this structure.Thus,on the basis of former studies,this article focuses on a comprehensive survey of the factors that affect each other and restrict each other in the structure,as well as the syntactic,semantic,and pragmatic features of each component in the structure.And at the same time,this thesis is aimed at providing some help for teaching Chinese as a foreign language.According to the research of the four components in the structure,we found that the adjectives mainly include�big,small,full,whole,long,thick�;the classifiers are mainly individual classifiers,collective classifiers,and borrowing classifiers,among which borrowing classifiers are the most frequently used;the nouns are mostly entity nouns,and a few abstract nouns.And in the English structure,numerals are frequently appearing as�a/an�;the adjectives have a wider range but mainly character adjectives;the classifiers are mostly collective classifiers and borrowing classifiers;and the nouns that appear in the structure are mostly unaccountable nouns and some abstract nouns.By researching the syntactic,semantic,and pragmatic features of the structure,it is found that the structure is usually used as the subject or object in sentences.From the point of pragmatic's view,this structure has certain main features,such as subjectivity,prominence,and descriptiveness.Based on the current usage of this structure in TCSL(Teaching Chinese as a Second Language)classroom,this paper points out several suggestions on improvement of teaching this structure while teaching Chinese to foreigners.