Classifier Structures in Mandarin Chinese (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [Tilsm]) (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs, 263)

This monograph addresses fundamental syntactic issues of classifier constructions, based on a thorough study of a typical classifier language, Mandarin Chinese. It shows that the contrast between count and mass is not binary. Instead, there are two independently attested features: Numerability, the ability of a noun to combine with a numeral directly, and Delimitability, the ability of a noun to be modified by a delimitive modifier, such as size, shape, or boundary modifier. Although all nouns in Chinese are non-count nouns, there is still a mass/non-mass contrast, with mass nouns selected by individuating classifiers and non-mass nouns selected by individual classifiers. Some languages have the counterparts of Chinese individuating classifiers only, some languages have the counterparts of Chinese individual classifiers only, and some other languages have no counterpart of either individual or individuating classifiers of Chinese. The book also reports that unit plurality can be expressed by reduplicative classifiers in the language. Moreover, for the constituency of a numeral expression, an individual, individuating, or kind classifier combines with the noun first and then the numeral is integrated; but a partitive or collective classifier, like a measure word, combines with the numeral first, before the noun is integrated into the whole nominal structure. Furthermore, the book identifies the syntactic positions of various uses of classifiers in the language. A classifier is at a functional head position that has a dependency with a numeral, or a position that has a dependency with a generic or existential quantifier, or a position that represents the singular-plural contrast, or a position that licenses a delimitive modifier when the classifier occurs in a compound. * This book provides analyses for various uses of classifiers in Mandarin Chinese: in numeral expressions, in quantifier expressions, in reduplicative forms, and in compounds. * The study challenges certain widely-adopted assumptions about the roles of classifiers with respect to the count-mass contrast and the singular-plural contrast. * It explains the formal contrasts between languages with and without numeral classifiers. Acknowledgments 11 Abbreviations 12 Chapter 1: Introduction 13 Chapter 2: Classifiers and countability 18 2.1. Introduction 18 2.2. Decomposing countability 19 2.2.1. Identifying two new features syntagmatically 19 2.2.2. Defining count and mass by the two features 27 2.2.3. Attesting the two features in co-occurrence restrictions 28 2.2.4. Attesting the two features in pronominalization 30 2.2.5. Attesting the two features in shifts 32 2.2.6. Numerability and number 37 2.3. The two features in nouns 41 2.3.1. Numerability of nouns 41 2.3.2. Delimitability of nouns 47 2.4. The two features in unit words 48 2.4.1. CLs and measure words 48 2.4.2. Unit words that occur with [-Delimitable] 50 2.4.3. Unit words that occur with [+Delimitable] 51 2.4.4. Unit words that occur with [±Delimitable] 55 2.4.5. The CL ge 58 2.4.6. Unit words as unique Numerability bearers in Chinese 61 2.4.7. Delimitability of unit words 62 2.5. Reflections on the studies of countability 64 2.5.1. What’s new? 64 2.5.2. The semantic approach to countability 68 2.5.3. The morphological approach to countability 70 2.5.4. The multi-criteria approach to countability 73 2.5.5. Other non-binary analyses of countability 73 2.5.6. Experimental perspective 77 2.6. Reflections on the studies of CLs in numeral expressions 78 2.6.1. The syntactic foundations of the presence of CLs 78 2.6.2. How special are the CLs of CL languages? 79 2.6.3. The sortal-mensural contrast and CLs that do not classify 82 2.6.4. The unreliability of the de and pre-CL adjective arguments 90 2.6.5. Experimental perspective 93 2.7. Chapter summary 95 Chapter 3: Classifiers and quantifiers 96 3.1. Introduction 96 3.2. Quantifiers that occur with a unit word 97 3.3. Quantifiers that occur without a unit word 99 3.4. The ambiguous cases 103 3.5. Non-numeral uses of yi ‘one’ in nominals 105 3.5.1. G-YI: Yi as a generic quantifier 105 3.5.2. E-YI: Yi as an existential quantifier 107 3.5.3. M-YI: Yi as a maximal quantifier 113 3.6. Chapter summary 118 Chapter 4: Classifiers and plurality 120 4.1. Introduction 120 4.1.1. Number in Mandarin Chinese? 120 4.1.2. General number and optional number marking 123 4.1.3. Abundant plural 125 4.2. Unit plurality 127 4.2.1. RUWs as unit-plurality markers 127 4.2.2. The productivity 129 4.2.3. RUWs, E-YI, and distributivity 132 4.2.4. Definiteness and specificity of RUW nominals 141 4.2.5. The interactions of numerals and number markers 142 4.3. Unit singularity 147 4.3.1. SUWs as unit-singularity markers 147 4.3.2. The productivity 149 4.3.3. The problems of the numeral-deletion analysis 152 4.3.4. Definiteness and specificity of SUW nominals 156 4.4. Morphological and semantic markedness 159 4.5. Number marking in CL languages 162 4.6. Chapter summary 166 Chapter 5: The syntactic constituency of numeral expressions 167 5.1. Introduction 167 5.2. Four arguments for the non-unified analysis 169 5.2.1. The scope of a left-peripheral modifier 169 5.2.2. The effect of modifier-association 172 5.2.3. Semantic selection 175 5.2.4. The order of size and shape modifiers 179 5.2.5. Two possible structures 182 5.3. Invalid arguments 184 5.3.1. The adjacency of a numeral and a unit word 184 5.3.2. Syntactic operations on NPs 186 5.3.3. NP ellipsis 189 5.3.4. The positions of the partitives duo ‘more’ and ban ‘half’ 189 5.3.5. Other invalid arguments 197 5.4. Constituency and the readings of numeral expressions 198 5.4.1. Count and measure 199 5.4.2. Individual and quantity 203 5.4.3. Definiteness and specificity 204 5.5. Constituency and the occurrence of de following a unit word 206 5.5.1. Background 206 5.5.2. The quantity-reading condition 207 5.5.3. Different sources of de 212 5.6. Chapter summary 217 Chapter 6: The syntactic positions of classifiers 219 6.1. Introduction 219 6.2. The projection of UnitP 220 6.2.1. Unit words in numeral expressions and the head of UnitP 220 6.2.2. The Spec-Head relation of a numeral and a unit word 225 6.2.3. The surface position of numerals and QuantP 229 6.3. The co-occurrence of QuantP, UnitP, and NumP 233 6.4. The morphosyntactic properties of pre-unit-word adjectives 239 6.5. The right- and left-branching numeral constructions 244 6.5.1. The representations of the right-branching structure 244 6.5.2. The representation of the left-branching structure 245 6.5.3. MonP and de 250 6.6. The structure of attributive numeral expressions 255 6.7. Various realizations of the head of UnitP 258 6.7.1. Major typological patterns of the null Unit 258 6.7.2. A comparison with numeral-oriented approaches 263 6.8. Chapter summary 266 Chapter 7: Noun-classifier compounds 268 7.1. Introduction 268 7.2. Basic properties of N-CL compounds 269 7.2.1. The components of N-CL compounds 269 7.2.2. The distributions and readings of N-CL compounds 273 7.3. DelP and N-CL compounds 274 7.3.1. Compound-internal CL as a realization of Del 274 7.3.2. DelP and delimitable markers 277 7.4. The non-count status of N-CL compounds 278 7.5. The relations between the higher and the lower CLs 279 7.5.1. No multiple individuating 279 7.5.2. No multiple counting-units 280 7.5.3. The semantic interactions between the two CLs 281 7.6. The place-holder CLs 282 7.6.1. Ge as the higher CL 283 7.6.2. The CL copying constructions 284 7.6.3. The alternation possibility 286 7.6.4. The significance of place-holder CLs 288 7.7. The syntactic representations of N-CL numeral expressions 288 7.7.1. The constructions without a place-holder CL 288 7.7.2. The constructions with a place-holder CL 291 7.8. Chapter summary 294 Chapter 8: Conclusions 295 References 302 Subject index 327 Language index 330

This monograph addresses fundamental syntactic issues of classifier constructions, based on a thorough study of a typical classifier language, Mandarin Chinese. It shows that the contrast between count and mass is not binary. Instead, there are two independently attested features: Numerability, the ability of a noun to combine with a numeral directly, and Delimitability, the ability of a noun to be modified by a delimitive modifier, such as size, shape, or boundary modifier. Although all nouns in Chinese are non-count nouns, there is still a mass/non-mass contrast, with mass nouns selected by individuating classifiers and non-mass nouns selected by individual classifiers. Some languages have the counterparts of Chinese individuating classifiers only, some languages have the counterparts of Chinese individual classifiers only, and some other languages have no counterpart of either individual or individuating classifiers of Chinese. The book also reports that unit plurality can be expressed by reduplicative classifiers in the language. Moreover, for the constituency of a numeral expression, an individual, individuating, or kind classifier combines with the noun first and then the numeral is integrated; but a partitive or collective classifier, like a measure word, combines with the numeral first, before the noun is integrated into the whole nominal structure. Furthermore, the book identifies the syntactic positions of various uses of classifiers in the language. A classifier is at a functional head position that has a dependency with a numeral, or a position that has a dependency with a generic or existential quantifier, or a position that represents the singular-plural contrast, or a position that licenses a delimitive modifier when the classifier occurs in a compound.

Main description: In Classifier Structure in Mandarin Chinese, Niina Ning Zhang proposes a new approach to the count-mass contrast, and the properties and functions of classifiers when they occur with numerals, with various quantifiers, in compounds, and in reduplicative forms. The new approach makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the existence of classifiers in numeral classifier languages. The investigation also uncovers that certain non-classifier languages lack only one type of classifiers, whereas other non-classifier languages may lack other types of classifiers