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Article published In:
Current Trends in Chinese Discourse
Edited by Wei Wang and Linda Tsung
[Chinese Language and Discourse 5:1] 2014
► pp. 79–97

Comparing classifier use in 1995 and 2010 early child Cantonese to explore social change in Hong Kong

| The University of Hong Kong
This study compared and analysed the classifier usage in two cohorts: the 492 Cantonese-speaking young children tested in 1995 (Tse & Li, 2011), and the 143 children tested in 2010 (Li &Tse, 2011). The results indicated that: (1) the 1995 and 2010 cohorts shared the same 8 most commonly used classifiers, 個 go3, 隻 zek3, 架 gaa3, 杯 bui1, 把 baa2, 嚿 gau6, 張 zoeng1, 間 gaan1; (2) Two top 10 classifiers were found in the 2010 cohort: 支 zi1, and 部 bou6; (3) both cohorts overused the general classifier 個 go3; and (4) both cohorts overused 隻 zek3 and 嚿 gau6 to replace sortal classifiers and even to replace the general classifier 個 go3. The pragmatic features and the associated social changes were discussed to understand the minor changes in classifier use between 1995 and 2010 cohorts.
Keywords: young children, Cantonese, classifier use
Published online: 12 September 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.5.1.04li
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Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Tsung, Linda & Dandan Wu
2021. A Corpus-Based Comparison of the Pragmatic Use of Qian and Hou to Examine the Applicability of Space–Time Metaphor Hypothesis in Early Child Mandarin. Frontiers in Psychology 11 DOI logo
Nagy, Naomi & Samuel Lo
2019. Classifier use in Heritage and Hong Kong Cantonese. Asia-Pacific Language Variation 5:1 ► pp. 84 ff. DOI logo

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