The Constituency of Classifier Constructions in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract

由數詞，單位詞，及名詞構成的短語可分析為三種句法結構：容器單位詞，度量單位詞，部分單位詞及群體單位詞出現在左分枝結構中，個體單位詞及個體化單位詞出現在右分枝結構中，種類單位詞出現在延伸式右分枝結構中。此結論由以下考慮得出：左邊緣修飾語的轄域；單位詞的修飾語與名詞的修飾語之間的依存關係；數詞與單位詞的合成體之可能的句法功能；以及單位詞對名詞的語意選擇。本文指出數詞與單位詞的共現以及“多”及“半”的位置都無法證明數詞與單位詞是否構成一個句法成分。而且左右分枝與數量語義及個體語義無對應關係。此外，本文認為單位詞後帶“的”的結構有可能是比較句的省略句式，所以“的”的位置並不一定標示句法成分的分界處。

This paper examines the constituency of the construction that contains three elements: a numeral, a word that encodes a counting unit, such as a classifier or measure word, and a noun in Mandarin Chinese. It identifies three structures: a left-branching structure for container measures, standard measures, partitive classifiers, and collective classifiers; a right-branching structure for individual and individuating classifiers; and a structure in which no two of the three elements form a constituent, for kind classifiers. The identification is based on the investigation of four issues: <i> the scope of a left-peripheral modifier; <ii> the dependency between the modifier of unit word and that of a noun; <iii> the complement and predicate status of the combination of a numeral and a unit word; <iv> the semantic selection relation between a unit word and a noun. The paper also shows that the co-occurrence of a numeral and a unit word and the position of certain partitive markers are not reliable in identifying syntactic constituents. It also argues against quantity-individual semantic mappings with different syntactic structures. Finally, the paper presents a comparative deletion analysis of the constructions in which the functional word de follows a unit word.