Metaphorical Mechanisms For The Construction And Interpretation Of Anomalous Classifier Structures In Chinese And English

Chinese is one of the typical classifier languages, while English is a non-classifier language. Despite this fact, the classifier system, which functions as units of mensuration, is a common linguistic phenomenon shared by both of them. Recently, with the development of human physical and spiritual life, more and more anomalous classifier structures have come into existence. The anomalous collocation between classifiers and nouns is a metaphorical collocation which people employ for pragmatic purposes in special cases by deliberately violating conventional rules of combining classifiers and nouns into the classifier structures. Grounded on relevant metaphor theories, this thesis is concerned with the discussion about the metaphorical construction mechanisms of anomalous classifier structures and their corresponding cognitive interpretation mechanisms. It is believed that the study in this thesis can further the development of the researches on classifiers and the contrastive studies between Chinese and English.The thesis consists of seven chapters. Chapter One provides the general background against which the present research is made, the objectives located, the significance identified and the organization arranged. In Chapter Two, we review the previous academic studies concerning classifier structures, and then provide the thesis with a theoretical background. On the basis of the previous researches and relevant cognitive theories, Chapter Three focuses on the classification of classifiers employed in anomalous classifier structures. In Chapter Four, based on the metaphorical mapping relations between classifiers and nouns, we demonstrate four main types of anomalous classifier structures and then go further into the metaphorical mechanisms involved in their construction and interpretation. In Chapter Five, we exhibit the main pragmatic functions of anomalous classifier structures. Chapter Six provides the anomalous classifier structures with three main bases. Finally, a conclusion is reached in the ending chapter.Through the above discussion and analysis, we come to the following conclusions. Firstly, the matching relations between classifiers and nouns in the anomalous classifier structures, or the mapping relations between two images, actually reflect the cognitive understanding of the relevant categories represented by the nouns. In this case, classifiers indicate the perspectives from which the addresser looks at things. Secondly, in classifier languages (Chinese as an example) and non-classifier languages (English as an example) as well, the anomalous classifier structures share the common cognitive modes—Static Image Mode (including Explicit Image Mode and Implicit Image Mode) and Dynamic Image Mode (including Active Image Mode and Passive Image Mode). Besides, they have the common cognitive rules—the classifying criteria are not properties of entities only, but more of the inter-relations between the two entities. And the choice of a classifier is determined by the nature of the semantic, real-world relation between the referents of the two linguistic elements—the classifier and the noun.