Xishuangbanna Dai Language Quantifiers Study

The classifiers of the Dai of Xishuangbanna with powerful grammatical functions are not only endowed with obvious characteristics in the classifier typology but also that of cognition affected by unique national characteristics of the Dai nationality.Based on the analysis of the basic characteristics of the Dai classifiers,the current research has firstly performed a detailed description of the system of the Dai classifiers, including its range, origin, sorting, grammatical functions and restriction for the concert with other words with the methods of description of the structural linguistics, comparison of the typology and crossing-composing between language and culture. Secondly, further research has also performed to find out the characteristics of the Dai classifiers by carrying out comparisons between the classifiers of the Dai with some other languages especially the Chinese classifiers. At last, based on the investigation of the Dai classifiers in the environment of the society of the Dai nationality, the current research will try to find out the characteristics of the cognition and thought of the Dai nationality represented by the Dai classifiers.The article is mainly composed of six parts to elaborate the Dai classifiers.The first three chapters mainly describe and explain the Dai classifiers, with the emphasis on the description and attempts to make the comprehensive introduction from the different angles to the Dai classifier.Chapter I has carried on a comprehensive review to Xishuangbanna Dai classifier research and summarized its research characteristic and the insufficiency to show the aims and value of the current research. Then, an issue concerning the research of the classifiers of the Zhuang-Tong language family, "the category word and the classifier", has also been discussed to introduce the disputes of the two concepts to define the research scope and basic survey of the Dai classifiers. Chapter II carries on the description on basic grammatical function of the Dai classifier.Chapter III has inspected the correlation of the Dai classifiers and other words including the selection and selection-restriction, such as, the numeral, the noun, the verb, the adjective, the adverb, the pointer word and so on. Then a further discussion has also been performed on the influence of the Dai classifiers on the word orders of the modifiers in front of the nouns.Chapter IV and V have mainly employed the comparative method to compare the Dai classifiers with those in some other languages to find outsome more characteristics of the Dai classifiers. Chapter IV has investigated the typology characteristics displayedby the Dai classifiers, emphatically from two aspects, the qualitative characteristic displayed in the process of language use and the other used as the structure auxiliary " De (of) ".Chapter V has come to the fact that the Dai classifiers are fewer than those of Chinese, have a larger proportion of " Copying" classifiers, but weaker trope functions and less abstract in the semantic than those of Chinese. Then, the current research has come to the conclusion that the Dai classifier has the characteristic of the combination of stability and transformation, based on the investigation of the generalization of the Dai classifiers and varieties with the social changes.Chapter VI mainly inspects the Dai culture reflected in the Dai classifiers.The defects and short comings have also been pointed out in the last chapter.