Study Of Measure Words In Modern Chinese

The Measure Word or Unit Word is an important kind of vocabulary in modern Chinese. It is also a characteristic of Chinese grammar. At present, the study of measure word is made at multi-level and in many ways, but there are two major models in brief: first, the internal study of measure words, analyzing all kinds of semantic characteristics of measure words and revealing their origin, transformation and use basis by studying their features from measure words themselves; secondly, the external study of measure words, studying their grammatical meaning and syntactic function from the combination relation of measure words and the modified words.The thesis, from measure words themselves and according to their inner characteristics, such as"quantity", space, classifies the substance measure words into special measure words, borrowing measure words and temporary measure words. This classification manifests the development process of measure words and their grammatical features. On the other hand, the thesis analyzes the cognition basis on which they form, namely, it achieves syntax of the virtual of the substance measure words and reflects the degree in classification by means of metonymic model or transferred designation.The thesis, on the basis of analyzing the characteristic of measure words and by analyzing the semantic characteristic of their origin, finds out the semantic characteristic of measure words and reveals the inner semantic relationships between certain measure words and specific modified words, namely, the semantic collocation of a measure word and the modified noun can only be practical on condition that both of their semantic meanings are similar or even the same. If there is no coincidence of their semantic meanings, they cannot be collocated. Here the commonly-used substance measure words are without doubt excluded, such as"ge". The collocation between a measure word and a noun is neither optional nor accepted only through common practice, for there is certain relationship between them. Shen Jiaxuan's theory of syntactic similarity (1999) can explain the relevant questions.Finally, the thesis, on the basis of analyzing the semantic characteristics of the measure words and nouns, analyzes the important function of measure words in numeral-classifier phrases and brings them into the field of grammar, discusses the three syntactic functions of numeral-classifier phrases, reference, declaration and definitiveness, by analyzing the relationship among the three. The thesis points out that reference and declaration can be returned to definitiveness by certain means, meanwhile, the transformation from definitiveness to reference also conforms to the cognitive mechanism and briefly analyzes the cause of their formation in the cognitive frame.