"the Story Of A Marriage" The Quantifier Study

Xing Shi Yin Yuan Zhuan is a novel in the vernacular with Shandong dialect.Thebook was probably finished at the beginning of Qing Dynasty. It reflects the changingand developing conditions of the language during the later period of modernChinese .At the same time it is full of local color, it is, therefore, extremely valuablefor our research,especially in the study of the history of Chinese. so the authorchooses Xing Shi Yin Yuan Zhuan as the studying object.Classifiers are the words that express the units of humans, things and actions.One of the characteristics of the Chinese language is that there exist abundantclassifiers. In the history of Chinese classifier study, a lot of research was done onthe classifiers before the Tang Dynasty, while little during the Song, Yuan, Ming andQing Dynasty. Therefore, this paper takes the classifiers in the book of Xing Shi YinYuan Zhuan as the subject of study and gives a classified description andcomparative analysis. The paper consists of two parts. The first part is the description of classifiers.There are altogether 220 special classifiers in Xing Shi Yin Yuan Zhuan. The paperconsults some related books on classification approaches, then excerpts,classifiesand describes the classifiers in Xing Shi Yin Yuan Zhuan . In the paper, the classifiersare divided into two groups:nounoun classifiers and verb classifiers.The nounounclassifiers include metrical,natural and temporary classifiers.Verb classifiers refer tospecial and temporary classifiers. This paper divides the metrical classifiers into fivecategories: length, capacity, weight, area and currency classifiers. In terms of theorigins, the natural classifiers are divided into twenty-eight subcategories:animal ,plant, human ,clothing and cloth, diet and medicine , architecture,communication, lamps and candles, entertainment goods ,works, item, the sun andmoon, water, location ,species , grade, articles in pairs, part, superposition, gathering ,permutation, spot shape , line shape , surface shape, lump shape, word originatingfrom action, unsteady quantity and other classifiers. The temporary noun classifiersare divided into three categories: the classifiers taking advantage of scenes, ofarticles and of the parts of a body. Of verbal classifiers, the special verbal classifiersaren't given a further division but the temporary verbal classifiers are divided intofour categories: time, organ, tool and attendant classifiers.As every classifier is described,the usage of it is also illustrated. Meanwhile,coetaneous comparison is used in the synonymous classifiers while the developmentof classifiers in different dynasties is also discussed.Moreover,the paper providesthe statistics about the occurrence frequency of the 220 classifiers in Xing Shi YinYuan Zhuan and presents it in a chart.The second part is the theory study. On the basis of the description and analysisof the classifier system in the book of Xing Shi Yin Yuan Zhuan. some characteristicsand laws are discussed. There are five topics in all. First, the classifier system in thebook is the result of the accretion of history. It hasn't only one but three levels,which are ancient, modern and contemporary levels. The classifiers of the threelevels are included in the system. Second, the classifiers have distinct regionalcharacteristics. There are in all twenty-six special classifiers with dialect flavor,which is 11.8% of all the special classifiers. The prominent phenomena of Erhua andZihua are the reflection of the northern dialect at that time. Third, Gehua of theclassifiers exists in the book. The paper discusses the phenomenon of Gehua andconcludes that Gehua will never actually realize. Fourth, there appears thephenomenon of superposition of classifiers in the book. The superposing forms andmeanings after superposition are probed. Fifth, there appear the structural formsof the classifiers in the book. The paper analyzes the classifier structures andconcludes that the structural forms of the classifier are relatively complete in thebook.