Measure word: Encyclopedia II - Measure word - Asian Languages

Measure word - Asian Languages

Languages such as Ainu, Bangla (Bengali), Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai use measure words as the standard way of indicating the count of the number of items, rather than, as in most Indo-European languages, allowing numbers to count a noun directly.

Measure word - Chinese

In Mandarin, nouns are not conjugated for singular or plural numerus; a noun without a classifier can be translated as either singular or plural. Classifiers are used when enumerating a count noun:

Tā yǒu sān shuāng kuaìzi.

Nǐ yǒu méi yǒu qī zhāng zhuōzi?

In contrast to the above examples from English, Chinese measure words are obligatory with enumeration of all count nouns; "yī rén" in modern Chinese when used as a measure word is grammatically incorrect, though uses elsewhere, and in classical Chinese, can be found. The choice of a classifier for each noun is a matter of grammar, is somewhat arbitrary, and must be memorized by learners of Chinese. The classifier assigned to a noun often has an imagistic association with that object. Thus, zhāng has table as one of its meanings, and is used for large and thin objects. (Though uncommon, it is even possible to omit the noun if the choice of classifier makes the intended noun obvious.) Not all classifier words derive from nouns. For example, the word bǎ can also be a verb meaning to grab, and is the measure word for objects that have handles.

Measure word - Bangla Bengali

Similar to Chinese, nouns in Bangla (Bengali) are not inflected for number. Although not typical for an Indo-European language, every noun in Bangla (Bengali) must have its corresponding measure word (MW) when used with a numeral or other quantifier. Most nouns take the generic measure word ţa, although there are many more specific measure words, such as jon, which is only used to count humans. Still, the number of measure words in Bangla (Bengali) certainly does not compare to that of Chinese or Japanese.

Similar to the situation in Chinese, measuring nouns in Bangla without their corresponding measure words (e.g. aţ biŗal instead of aţ-ţa biŗal "eight cats") would typically be considered ungrammatical. However, omitting the noun and preserving the measure word is grammatical and not uncommon to hear. For example, Shudhu êk-jon thakbe. (lit. "Only one-MW will remain.") would be understood to mean "Only one person will remain.", since jon can only be used to count humans. The word lok "person" is implied.

Measure word - Japanese

In Japanese grammar, most nouns are effectively mass nouns, and measure words must be used with a number when counting them. The appropriate measure word is chosen based on the kind and shape of the noun, and combines with the numeral, sometimes adopting several different forms. This is similar to noun classes in many African languages, except that the classifiers are used only when counting.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Asian Languages", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki