英语“类量词”研究——兼与汉语量词作功能类型学对比

English quasi-numeral classifiers: A functional-typological perspective from Chinese

本文首先以汉语量词为参照系反观英语双名词表量结构,用功能类型学的标准研究策略,分析汉语量词的功能在英语中的相应表达,认为英语双名词表量结构中的第一个名词是汉语量词在英语中的功能对等项,由此建立英语"类量词"概念;然后探讨英语类量词有别于汉语量词的特点。文章提出"质-量"微型语义地图的概念,将两种语言的名词表量机制置于统一系统中,力图从认知共性的角度发掘语言特异性背后隐藏的语言共性。

Taking Chinese measure words as the reference system,this paper targets at a functionaltypological analysis of the quantitative nouns in English binominal quantitative constructions.Adopting a standard research strategy for typological research,it discerns the English structure which decodes the functions performed by measure noun phrases in Chinese and argues that N1s in binominal quantitative constructions are English functional counterparts of Chinese measure words,hence establishing a concept of‘English Quasi-Numeral Classifiers’.It then analyses English quasinumeral classifiers’morpho-syntactic and functional features.The paper moves on to propose a Quality-Quantity mini-semantic map,and suggests that the noun measurisation mechanisms in the two languages share the same conceptual space,though carving it in slightly different ways.On the Quality-Quantity semantic map,the two noun measurisation mechanisms of the two languages are placed in one consistent and unified system,in an effort to view the‘Classifier Language’of Chinese and the‘Non-Classifier Language’of English in terms of language universals.