| Mandarin is the official language of China, spoken regionally in the Northern part of China. The language is exceptionally rich in classifiers. Modern Mandarin dictionaries list about 150 standard classifiers. In addition there are many nouns which are borrowed to serve as temporary classifiers. The total number of classifiers is over 500 in spoken and written Mandarin, if we add in the temporary classifiers. The frequency of classifiers has been investigated (Xiong:1977), and it was found that there is one classifier for every 50 characters. In literary works, the frequency is even higher: about 30 characters for every classifier. However, most educated adults commonly confine themselves to a core set of a few dozen classifiers.; In Mandarin the use of a numeral requires the use of a classifier. Incorrect use of classifiers renders a sentence 'ungrammatical'. The constituents of the numeral classifier construction must occur in the order: Numeral-CL-Noun. Mandarin classifiers include verbal classifiers and noun classifiers. This paper concentrates on noun classifiers. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
