量词及其类型学考察

Classifiers and Some Typological Considerations

研究量词时,无论是名量词还是动量词,都应该成为类型学研究的一个参数。文章在前人研究的基础上,论证无论是从历时的角度观察,还是从句法位置的角度分析,名量词与动量词都是相互依存的。跨语言统计的数据,尤其是中文方面的数据,显示了这种相关性:名量词的发展早于动量词,并且这两类量词的分布呈现互补状态,即名量词在汉语里出现在名词之前,动量词出现在动词之后。

Classifiers, both nominal and verbal, must be taken into consideration as a parameter in typological study of the numeral classifier languages. Building on previous work, this paper shows that nominal and verbal classifiers are mutually dependent both chronologically and in terms of their syntactic position. Cross-linguistic data in general, and Chinese in particular, illustrate this dependency. nominal classifiers develop before verbal classifiers and the two kinds of classifiers are in a complementary distribution, occurring before nouns and after verbs respectively.