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Part of
Corpus Approaches to Language, Thought and Communication
Edited by Wei-lun Lu, Naděžda Kudrnáčová and Laura A. Janda
[Benjamins Current Topics 119] 2021
► pp. 115–132

The near-synonymy of classifiers and construal operation

A corpus-based study of 棵 kē and 株 zhū in Chinese

| Masaryk University
| Masaryk University
This paper investigates the near-synonymy of classifiers, using Chinese kē and zhū as illustration. We find that in [quantifier] – [classifier] – [noun], the two classifiers have overlapping semantic prototypes due to their similar behavioral profiles. However, despite a shared functional core, the two classifiers diverge in terms of which part of plant to profile. In particular, zhū highlights parts of plant that are small and vulnerable, such as flowers and seedlings. In addition, small is another important conceptual characteristic exclusively associated with zhū, which gives it a distinctive set of peripheral members to include in that particular linguistic category, including mold, bacterium, and even biological and chemical substance. Another important difference is the quantifier that precedes, where kē tends to occur with lower numbers (typically under 10), while zhū with higher numbers (typically over 1,000). Accordingly, we conclude that [quantifier] – [zhu] – [noun] tends to invoke a higher-resolution construal.
Keywords: classifier, construal, quantifier, synonymy, Chinese
Article outline
  • 1.Classifiers in Chinese
  • 2.Near-synonymy in cognitive linguistics
  • 3.Scope and method of analysis
  • 4. Kē and zhū as classifiers
    • 4.1The nouns modified by kē
    • 4.2The nouns modified by zhū
    • 4.3A comparison of the nouns modified by kē and zhū
  • 5.The quantifier in [quantifier] – [classifier] – [noun]
  • 6.When it all adds up: The construal invoked by [quantifier] – [ke/zhu] – [noun]
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations used
  • References
  • Dictionary consulted
Published online: 16 August 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.119.06dos
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