A Comparative Study of the General Classifier Gè and Its Near-Synonyms in Modern Chinese——Taking Gè, Zhǒng, and Jiàn as Examples

Jingying Rui; Jia Fei Hong

doi:10.1007/978-981-97-0583-2_6

A Comparative Study of the General Classifier Gè and Its Near-Synonyms in Modern Chinese——Taking Gè, Zhǒng, and Jiàn as Examples

Jingying Rui, Jia Fei Hong^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Chinese as a Second Language

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

As the only general classifier in modern Chinese, the attribute of Gè (个) inevitably leads to semantic overlap with other classifiers resulting in misuse, which is worthy of further research. This study conducts a comparative analysis of Gè and its near-synonyms, Zhǒng (种) and Jiàn (件), based on corpus research. It shows that Gè and Jiàn have co-occurrence contexts when measuring nouns about events, but the use of Gè is usually limited to colloquial language, while Jiàn is applicable to both colloquial and written language. The noun Shìjiàn (事件) ‘event’ is usually modified by Gè not by Jiàn. There is no semantic overlap between Gè and Zhǒng and they cannot be used interchangeably. Some nouns can appear simultaneously in the Num/RNum+Gè/Zhǒng+N structure, and choosing which classifier is only determined by quantitative or categorical concepts they expressed.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Chinese Lexical Semantics - 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Revised Selected Papers
Editors	Minghui Dong, Jia-Fei Hong, Jingxia Lin, Peng Jin
Publisher	Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages	60-73
Number of pages	14
ISBN (Print)	9789819705825
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-0583-2_6
Publication status	Published - 2024
Event	24th Workshop on Chinese Lexical Semantics, CLSW 2023 - Singapore, Singapore Duration: 2023 May 19 → 2023 May 21

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume	14514 LNAI
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	24th Workshop on Chinese Lexical Semantics, CLSW 2023
Country/Territory	Singapore
City	Singapore
Period	2023/05/19 → 2023/05/21

Keywords

Classifier
Gè
Jiàn
Semantics
Zhǒng

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Theoretical Computer Science
General Computer Science

Access to Document

10.1007/978-981-97-0583-2_6

Cite this

Rui, J., & Hong, J. F. (2024). A Comparative Study of the General Classifier Gè and Its Near-Synonyms in Modern Chinese——Taking Gè, Zhǒng, and Jiàn as Examples. In M. Dong, J.-F. Hong, J. Lin, & P. Jin (Eds.), Chinese Lexical Semantics - 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Revised Selected Papers (pp. 60-73). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 14514 LNAI). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-0583-2_6

A Comparative Study of the General Classifier Gè and Its Near-Synonyms in Modern Chinese——Taking Gè, Zhǒng, and Jiàn as Examples. / Rui, Jingying; Hong, Jia Fei.
Chinese Lexical Semantics - 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Revised Selected Papers. ed. / Minghui Dong; Jia-Fei Hong; Jingxia Lin; Peng Jin. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2024. p. 60-73 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 14514 LNAI).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Rui, J & Hong, JF 2024, A Comparative Study of the General Classifier Gè and Its Near-Synonyms in Modern Chinese——Taking Gè, Zhǒng, and Jiàn as Examples. in M Dong, J-F Hong, J Lin & P Jin (eds), Chinese Lexical Semantics - 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Revised Selected Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 14514 LNAI, Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, pp. 60-73, 24th Workshop on Chinese Lexical Semantics, CLSW 2023, Singapore, Singapore, 2023/05/19. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-0583-2_6

Rui J, Hong JF. A Comparative Study of the General Classifier Gè and Its Near-Synonyms in Modern Chinese——Taking Gè, Zhǒng, and Jiàn as Examples. In Dong M, Hong JF, Lin J, Jin P, editors, Chinese Lexical Semantics - 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Revised Selected Papers. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. 2024. p. 60-73. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). doi: 10.1007/978-981-97-0583-2_6

Rui, Jingying ; Hong, Jia Fei. / A Comparative Study of the General Classifier Gè and Its Near-Synonyms in Modern Chinese——Taking Gè, Zhǒng, and Jiàn as Examples. Chinese Lexical Semantics - 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Revised Selected Papers. editor / Minghui Dong ; Jia-Fei Hong ; Jingxia Lin ; Peng Jin. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2024. pp. 60-73 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)).

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abstract = "As the only general classifier in modern Chinese, the attribute of G{\`e} (个) inevitably leads to semantic overlap with other classifiers resulting in misuse, which is worthy of further research. This study conducts a comparative analysis of G{\`e} and its near-synonyms, Zhǒng (种) and Ji{\`a}n (件), based on corpus research. It shows that G{\`e} and Ji{\`a}n have co-occurrence contexts when measuring nouns about events, but the use of G{\`e} is usually limited to colloquial language, while Ji{\`a}n is applicable to both colloquial and written language. The noun Sh{\`i}ji{\`a}n (事件) {\textquoteleft}event{\textquoteright} is usually modified by G{\`e} not by Ji{\`a}n. There is no semantic overlap between G{\`e} and Zhǒng and they cannot be used interchangeably. Some nouns can appear simultaneously in the Num/RNum+G{\`e}/Zhǒng+N structure, and choosing which classifier is only determined by quantitative or categorical concepts they expressed.",

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A Comparative Study of the General Classifier Gè and Its Near-Synonyms in Modern Chinese——Taking Gè, Zhǒng, and Jiàn as Examples

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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