An Overview of the Research on the Development of Classifiers from the Tang to the Sung Dynasty

• Main Authors: Lin Jia-Hong, 林家鋐
• Other Authors: Zbigniew Wesołowski
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/77237906412923647310

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 語言學研究所 === 97 === The research on changes of Chinese classifiers is an important field in the study of Chinese languages. In this thesis, the author makes a contribution to this research field by presenting an overview of research findings done to the present day. The thesis covers the period of the development of classifiers from the Tang to the Sung dynasty. The changes of Chinese classifiers during this over six hundred years’ period (618-1279) pertain to their grammatical/syntactic (such as a verb-component structure) and semantic dimensions, and the changes themselves have various reasons. Among the extra-linguistic reasons there must be one like the cognitive-psychological mechanism of the Han people- the Chinese. There are still other principles at work, such as summary scanning and sequential scanning proposed by Ronald Langacker. Some pragmatic principles, such as I-Principle and the Principle of Least Effort, may also cause the syntactic or morphological development of classifiers. The author offers an overview of the semantic development of classifiers in accordance with the findings of various scholars. The classifiers are studied in their four semantic relations: similarity, correlation, agreement, and association. From this viewpoint, the change happens mostly in classifiers equipped with agreement relation, and those equipped with correlation relation undergo a least change. If the classifiers are observed from a categorical perspective, the change happens mostly in individual classifiers, and specific verb classifiers. From the perspective of frequency of language use to observe classifiers, some functional classifiers, such as container, weight and measure classifiers, or some temporary classifiers have undergone more changes than temporal classifiers have. Besides, if the author observes classifiers in this perspective, the disappearance and the birth of classifiers at the time-point of Sung dynasty is a key to observe. So from this viewpoint, he discovers except temporal classifiers, the others all present more change. Therefore, the change happens mostly in this perspective. The reasons why the semantic changes happen in the classifiers have to do with the following factors: metaphors, the discovery of similarity from different things, inference mechanism, culture (affecting more on the change of classifiers in the perspective of frequency of language use), metaphorical transfer, abstraction, non-specialization, and an inclination to use oral language. The author also discusses some statistic viewpoints on the classifiers in that period. The statistical data provided in this research are used to supply a more solid ground for the judgment of the change of classifiers in the given period. At his thesis, the author discusses the aspect of the used frequency of classifiers. This aspect has not been discussed more in this research because respective scholars took this aspect into their studies little, and the author is deeply convinced that it may mostly influence the change of classifiers. Thus, the development of the used frequency of classifiers and the Chinese research history of classifiers seem to be two conspicuous topics worthy of being discussed further. Besides, the pragmatic development of classifiers is another interesting topic worthy of being explored further. However, some obstacles about this research must be noticed: oral data about Chinese classifiers in the history are hard to be collected and distinguished. Moreover, scholars can try to have some ways to minimize the ratio that the same Chinese character is distributed into different categories of classifiers.