Grammaticalization Of Body Nouns Used As Classifiers From A Cognitive Perspective

Classifier is a type of words for measuring persons,things or actions.Human organs or body nouns temporarily borrowed as units of quantity to measure persons,things or actions are called body classifiers.In general,classifiers are originally nouns,and then gradually they lose most of their content meaning to serve as grammatical functions in the process of grammaticalization.As a part of classifier s,body nouns used as classifiers also experience the grammaticalization.However,through the previous researches,there is less attention to the grammaticalization of both Chinese and English body classifiers.Thus,this paper aims to analyze the grammaticalization of body nouns used as classifiers in both Chinese and English,discovering the collocational features between central nouns and body classifiers,as well as offering a reasonable explanation for how body nouns used as classifiers realize the grammaticalization through metaphorical and metonymic processes.According to Modern Chinese Dictionary(the 6^th Edition,2012)and Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary(the 7^th Edition,2008),there are 54kinds of body nouns in total.Based on Chinese and English corpora,namely Center for Chinese Linguistics PKU（CCL）and Corpus of Contemporary American English（COCA）,the author uses the search patterns of body classifiers as“一+器官量词（的）+名词”and“a/an+body classifier+of+n.”to confirm that among the 54 body nouns,19 of them can be used as classifiers both in Chinese and English.Therefore,the present study aims to make a comprehensive research on these 19 body classifiers.The study is aimed to answer three research questions as follows:1.What are the central nouns measured by Chinese and English body nouns used as classifiers?What features do they mainly have?2.How are body classifiers classified according to the different types of central nouns they measured in Chinese and English?3.How do body classifiers realize the process of grammaticalization?The present cross-lingual study first distinguishes the categories of central nouns measured by body classifiers,and then provides taxonomy of body classifiers themselves.Furthermore,the paper probes into how body classifiers realize grammaticalization through metaphorical and metonymic mechanisms and analyzes them from a cognitive perspective.The major findings of this thesis are as follows:1)There are four and six types of central nouns measured by body classifiers in Chinese and English respectively.Six prominent collocational features between central nouns and body classifiers are found from horizontal and longitudinal analysis;2)Body classifiers can be divided into five types.The numeral word“一”before the body classifiers in Chinese and the suffix“-ful”in English can convey the meanings of“满”（total or whole）when collocated with certain types of body classifiers;3)The grammaticalization of body nouns used as classifiers is the result of the interaction between diachronic and synchronic,as well as the metaphorical and metonymic processes.After such a detailed research,the thesis provides a better understanding about body nouns used as classifiers in Chinese and English.Firstly,the comparisons between Chinese and English body classifiers are conducted to show the similarities and differences between two languages.Secondly,the paper provides a reference for how to use body classifiers correctly according to the corresponding central nouns they modify.In this way,the Chinese or English learners can make less mistakes during intercultural communication.Thirdly,the grammaticalization of body nouns used as classifiers may shed light on the grammaticalization of other parts of speech in language.