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Article published In: International Journal of Chinese Linguistics
Vol. 2:1 (2015) ► pp.1–32

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Amount classifiers in Chinese and the mass/count distinction

 | National Chiao Tung University
Published online: 10 July 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.2.1.01liu
In Chinese, temporary classifiers form together with classifiers like piàn ‘piece’, tuán ‘something ball-shaped’, gǔ ‘stream or stand’ and pài ‘faction or clique’ a type of classifiers that has both mass and count forms. When occurring with the determinative quantifier yī to create a structure conveying the part-related reading, they appear in the ‘mass form’ (i.e., amount classifiers), but the ‘count form’ (i.e., number classifiers) when occurring with a genuine numeral. That is, the nominal mass/count distinction in Chinese is reflected at the classifier level as the distinction between the amount classifier and the number classifier. Moreover, this distinction is grammatical not ontological.
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