A Study Of Measure Words In Tang And Wudai Dynasties

Measure words are the major characteristic of Sino--Tibetan Language Family, and the sortal classifiers are the outstanding character in numeral classifiers language. Examining the origin, development, property and function of the measure words in Chinese is one of the most important steps in establishing the developing history of Chinese, and the researching of and Sino--Tibetan Language Family. Moreover, the system of measure words in Tang and Wudai dynasties, which is in an especial period, needs careful research.Three methodologies are applied in this dissertation. First, it collects and analyses large numbers of language materials which include the documents handed down (such as, history books, poems, and novels) and the Dunhuang documents which involve economy, medicine, religion, legal system, and military affairs. Second, it combines description with explanation. It analyzes the class and grammatical features of measure words and numeral-classifier structure. In addition, it explores the development and collocational range of every measure word. Third, it combines synchronic with diachronic analysis. It compares Dunhuang Documents with the documents handed down, and points out the special measure words and usages in Dunhuang Documents. Furthermore, it compares the system of measure words in Tang and Wudai dynasties with Wei and Jin dynasties showing the development. Then it examines the historical status of the system of measure words in Tang and Wudai dynasties.Comparing with other researches of measure words in ancient Chinese, this dissertation has two innovations. First, it pays attention to the unearthed documents. Dunhuang Documents which keep abundance of materials of spoken language have lots of advantages. It analyses fully the measure words in handed down documents and unearthed documents in order to roundly reflect the measure words system in Tang and Wudai dynasties. Second, by using the theory of exegetics, cognitive linguistics and lexical semantics, it expatiates the evolvement of every measure words. Besides, it sums up the characters of Chinese measure words from a typological perspective. Finally, it reviews the difference between numeral classifiers and classifiers for actions.This dissertation is about 200 thousand words, and divided into five chapters.Chapter one gives an introduction to the value and methods of the dissertation. Then, by reviewing the studies of measure words, it intends to judge gain and loss, and point out the perspectives in the future research.Chapter two researchs measure words system in Tang and Wudai dynasties. It lists the 349 measure words, and reviews the grammatical features of measure words and numeral-classifier structure.Chapter three studies the classifiers of things in Tang and Wudai dynasties. It reveals the origin, evolvement, and collocational range of quantifiers, borrowed measure words, measural classifiers and sortal classifiers. It also sums up the origin and the law of combination of classifiers and nouns of Chinese measure words from a typological perspective. Lastly, it explains the way that nouns can be classified in Chinses.Chapter four explores the origin, evolvement, collocational range of classifiers of actions and the law of combination of classifiers of actions and verbs in Tang and Wudai dynasties. Moreover, it sums up the characters of classifiers of actions comparing with classifiers of things, and probes into the causes.Chapter five lists all the newborn measure words and gives a conclusion to the dissertation.This dissertation is significant for four respects. First, it investigates the measure words system in both the unearthed documents and handed down documents. Second, it explains the development of the measure words and the law of combination of measure words and nouns or verbs. Third, it analyses the characters of Chinese measure words from a typological perspective. Forth, it explores the relativity between the classifiers for things and the classifiers for actions.