An Empirical Study Of The Word Class Status Of Modern Chinese Localizers

Word classes or parts of speech (hereinafter POS for short) are the foundation of grammar study. Naturally, the POS labeling becomes an important part in the Chinese lexicography. As the most authoritative and influential dictionary of China, The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (5th edition) (2005) (hereinafter CCD5 for short) is the first edition in its history to have made POS labeling for all its lexemes. In the labeling system adopted by CCD5, the modern Chinese localizers are classified into the category of nouns. They are treated as subcategories of nouns with time words. Since the word class status of localizers has long been controversial, whether the POS labeling of the localizers in CCD5 is reasonable or not needs further investigation. Moreover, the word class status of the modern Chinese localizers in modern Chinese grammar system needs reconfirmation.Therefore, on the basis of quantitative research, this thesis discusses the POS labeling of localizers in CCD5 by using the theories of categorization (including decategorization and recategorization) and cognitive mechanism—grammatical metaphor with the aid of the Modern Chinese Corpus of Center for Chinese Linguistics of Peking University (hereinafter CCL Corpus for short) and DIY databases of the modern Chinese localizers labeled in CCD5 and what they are labeled in The Standard Dictionary of Modern Chinese (2004) (hereinafter SDMC for short). This research makes practical surveys of the 90 localizers labeled in CCD5 and compares with what they are labeled in SDMC. The comparative results are discussed and case studies of some specially labeled localizers are made at the same time.It is found that the word classes of the localizers are dynamic and changeable. The word class conversions of the localizers are realized in the dynamic process of categorization, decategorization and recategorization. Behind the word class conversions of localizers, there is in-depth cognitive motivation and grammatical metaphor plays an important role. Grammatical metaphor is one mode of human being thinking, which is also an important mechanism of word class conversions. The POS labeling of the modern Chinese localizers in CCD5 is unpersuasive. Theoretically, localizers are semantic category, which does not correspond to the definition that word classes are classification of words in grammar. Practically, it is mismatched with the POS labeling standard of grammatical category in dictionary compilation, and results in the discordance of the POS labeling of modern Chinese localizers in CCD5 with the real situation of language use in Chinese community. Hence, the modern Chinese localizers should be recategorized into grammatical categories according to their own grammatical functions and correctly labeled in dictionaries on the basis of usage pattern surveys in the large balanced corpora.This research is not only helpful in deepening the ontological study of Chinese grammar but also beneficial in modern Chinese lexicography, especially POS labeling.