Semantic Analysis And Cognitive Interpretation Of Noun Classifiers In Modern Chinese

Among the Sino-Tibetan languages, Chinese classifier is a distinct and rich category.Rich kinds of Chinese classifiers represent how Chinese understand and express the world.Noun classifiers appeared the earliest and they occupy the largest proportion of classifiers,which are the research object of our research. The paper aims to make a semantic analysis andcognitive interpretation of noun classifiers in modern Chinese.The study discloses the continuity nature of sub-classes of noun classifiers, which is adevelopment of traditional defining and sub-division work based on classic category theory.Based on prototype category theory, the paper finds that the previous controversial sub-classesof classifiers are peripheral members of the classifier system, where the prototype membersare individual classifiers. It explores the family resemblance among each sub-class and provesthat the classifier system is an open continuum. Haiman’s iconic motivation theory and Tai’sreduplication theory are adopted to interpret the distributive features of the classifiers. The“fullness” connotation of some classifiers is a result of the clash between the mental imagesevoked by the classifier phrases and the real life experience.The paper explores the semantic relationship between classifiers and nouns and believesthat there is identity between classifiers and the modified nouns. It classifies the semanticrelationships into two major groups: similarity relationship and contiguity relationship.Conceptual metaphor and metonymy are the main cognitive mechanisms favoring the“classifier+noun” collocation. It also explains the “highlighting” cognitive function of nounclassifiers. Which classifier we adopt determines which perspective of the noun we arefocusing on and backgrounds other attributes of the noun.The motivations of category extension proposed by Lakoff shed light for our classifiercategory research. Through case analysis, the paper proved that the motivations behind theextension of classifier category include conceptual metaphor, conceptual metonymy,image-schema and conventional mental image. It also generalizes the path of the classifiercategory extension. The extension proceeds from central members and extends gradually toperipheral members, obeying the rule of parent nouns to nouns with similar concepts; nounsof concrete entities to nouns with trajectory concept; nouns with spatial concepts to nouns with temporal concepts; common nouns to abstract nouns. The commonly consideredparanormal collocations of classifier phrases are reasonable and motivated, instead ofarbitrary.The paper solves some problems in the classifier research field and enriches the classifierresearch and category research. It will also contribute to Chinese classifier acquisition forforeigners and classifier teaching for language teachers.