英语单位名词研究——以《牛津高阶英汉双解词典(第六版)》为例-文学学士毕业论文.doc

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Abstract

It’s believed that quantifier does not exist in English, and people do not think that the so-called “quantifiers” in English are not in their true sense. Their roles are just played by some normal nouns. So truly speaking, these “quantifiers” merely belong to nouns, namely, “unit nouns”. This essay has collected all the unit nouns selected from over 300 that have been collected in Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary (6th Edition). It aims to master the correct use of unit nouns and put forward the non-equivalence phenomenon in translation between English unit noun and Chinese quantifier, so as to emphasize the difference of habitual expressions and cultural background between two languages. It is hopeful that the research result of this essay can bring new ideas for the research of unit nouns and offer some reference and help for English learners.
Key words: English unit noun; Chinese quantifier, collection, species, translation, non-equivalence

摘要

一般而言，英语中不存在量词，因为英语中所谓的“量词”，其实并不是真正意义上的量词，而只是由一些普通名词来充当，所以准确地说，它们属于名词类，或称为“单位名词”。本文从《牛津高阶英汉双解词典（第六版）》出发，对其收录的300多个单位名词进行归类研究，以便掌握单位名词的准确用法。另外，文章提出了英语单位名词和汉语量词在翻译时出现的不对等现象，从而强调了两者之间的表达习惯和文化背景的差异，此研究结果希望能为英语单位名词研究提供新的思路，并为英语语言学习者提供一些参考和帮助。
关键词：英语单位名词；汉语量词；收集；分类；翻译；不对等

Contents

Abstract ii
摘要 iii
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Research background 1
1.2 Organization of the dissertation 2
2. Literature Review 3
2.1 The definitions of English unit noun and Chinese quantifier 3
2.1.1 The definitions of English unit noun 3
2.1.2 The definitions of Chinese quantifier 3
2.2 The characteristics of English unit noun 4
2.3 The functions of English unit noun 4
2.4 Research status 4
2.5 Summary 5
3. Methodology 6
3.1 Research objectives 6
3.2 Research method and data collection 6
3.3 Survey on the frequency of English unit noun 6
3.4 Summary 7
4. The Specifics of English Unit Noun 8
4.1 The specifics of English unit noun 8
4.1.1 Unit nouns modifying objects of different shapes 8
4.1.2 Unit nouns modifying humans 9
4.1.3 Unit nouns modifying animals 9
4.1.4 Unit nouns modifying volume 10
4.1.5 Unit nouns modifying measurement 10
4.1.6 Unit nouns expressing different emotions oractions 10
4.2 Summary 10
5. The Comparison of English Unit Noun and Chinese Quantifier 11
5.1 Non-equivalence of pragmatic functions 11
5.1.1 Non-equivalence e in adjective collocations 11
5.1.2 Non-equivalence in overlapping structures 11
5.2 Untranslatability in English unit noun and Chinese quantifier 12
6. Conclusion 13
6.1 Summary 13
6.2 Limitation and suggestions for future research 13
References 14
Acknowledgements 15

1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

We human beings share the same world and a lot of things. Despite the difference of languages, many aspects of these languages are interlinked, but everything is not the same. A language has its own specific form and particular social and historical background. That is why each language in the world has its own character. English and Chinese belong to two families of languages, Indo-European languages and Sino-Tibetan languages respectively. They are totally different not only in geographic position where they are originated from but also in the culture, mode of thinking and other backgrounds of their ethnics. In Chinese, there is a class of words named quantifier, which is abundant in vocabulary and profound in cultural deposits. While in English, there is no such independent class of words. Instead, noun words are used to express the concept of quantifier and this comes to shape a particular linguistic form. So, are these quantifiers and unit nouns the same?
It’s commonly believed that quantifier does not exist in English, because people do not think that the so-called “quantifiers” in English are not in their true sense. Their roles are just played by some normal nouns. So truly speaking, these “quantifiers” merely belong to nouns, namely, “unit nouns”. For example, in some phrases such as “a cup of tea”, “a bottle of wine”, “a collection of paintings”, they are made up by two noun words, cup and tea, bottle and wine, collection and painting. These phrases do not include those quantifiers as in Chinese with its specific meaning to indicate the quantity. Moreover, many uncommon words like horde, wisp, stud, hive, speck, spasm, etc. can act as unit nouns. You can not ignore them out of not knowing them, since they really exist. So, whether you pro or not the saying of quantifier in English, this linguistic form does exist. What people need to discuss is how to denominate it.
Actually, compared with Chinese, there are some situations in English that unit nouns are not necessary, e.g.: a flower, a knife, etc.; while in Chinese, these kinds of situations usually appear in ancient Chinese, like 一人(a person), 一桌(a desk), 一椅(a chair), etc. or in locutions or idioms such as 三心二意(san xin er yi): be of two minds; 九牛二虎(jiu niu er hu): tremendous effort; 三头六臂(san tou liu bi): super ability, etc. But nowadays, quantifiers are used in daily expressions of most situations. We can see that Chinese and English have their own emphasis and ways of expression on this class of words. So in mutual translation between Chinese and English, there are some English words which are difficult to translate into relevant Chinese quantifiers and vice versa.
Through analysis based on actual linguistic data, we can master the unit nouns by classifying them, knowing their features, comparing two languages. All these can make contribution to strengthening the acknowledgement and correct way to use of unit nouns, to the mutual study and communication of both languages, and more importantly, to creating new ways of translation in the future.

1.2 Organization of the dissertation

This dissertation includes six chapters. The first chapter illustrates the research background and the importance of the present study. Chapter Two reviews the definitions of English unit noun and Chinese quantifier. It also presents a brief characteristics and functions of English unit noun. Reviews of previous studies on the English unit noun and Chinese quantifier are provided. Chapter Three contains information about the present study, including research subjects, method, data collection, and the results of the frequency and variety of English unit noun. Chapter Four spreads out the specifics of English unit noun. Chapter Five discusses the non-equivalence and untranslatability between English unit noun and Chinese quantifier. Finally, we draw the conclusion with limitations of the dissertation and suggest further research.

2. Literature Review

This chapter first begins with definition of English unit noun and Chinese quantifier. Then, it continues with the characteristics and functions of English unit noun. The final section of this chapter deals with the previous studies on English unit noun and Chinese quantifier.

2.1 The definitions of English unit noun and Chinese quantifier
2.1.1 The definitions of English unit noun
As one of the Indo-European languages, there is no “quantifier” as one particular word class in English. Therefore, different names of the concept to partitive construction have aroused a lot of attention from scholars at home and abroad.
Zhang Zhenbang considered the words which show “the ‘unit’ of people or things or of the actions” as “unit nouns”. He thought a “unit noun is the noun that expresses the individuality of things. When a unit noun combines with a countable noun, they can express the meaning of “a group”. The uncountable nouns can also be combined with “a” or “one” when they come after a unit noun” (Tang Haiqin, 2004).
In the textbook College English edited by Dong Yafen, “‘unit nouns’ is adopted.” At the same time, she used “unit word” to refer to the similar words of “unit nouns” (Tang Haiqin, 2004).
According to Zhang Daozhen (2002) ’s definition in Practical English Grammar, “quantifier” is not a particular word, but many pronouns and determinatives are related to numerals, such as some, much, half, two months’, miles, and so on.
Palmer. H. (1975) used the term of “quantitative determinatives” in 1975. And in A Grammar of Contemporary English edited by Quirk. R. (1972), he used the term of “partitives”, or “partitive nouns”.

2.1.2 The definitions of Chinese quantifier
“Quantifier” is one of word classes in Chinese language. So the researches of Chinese quantifier have been carefully discussed by the Chinese scholars for decades. The different discussions about Chinese Quantifier can be known from the following definitions.
In 1924, “量词” emerged in Li Jingxi’s xinzhu guoyu wenfa 《新著国语文法》 (New Chinese Grammar, 黎锦熙). He said, “Classifier is the noun denoting the number. It comes after numerals to express the unit of a noun” (Tang Haiqin, 2004).
In 1957, Zhang Zhigong in his hanyu yufa changshi 《汉语语法常识》 (General Knowledge About Chinese Grammar, 张志公) said, “to express quantity and the unit, a word denoting the number is usually linked with a word denoting the unit, therefore, we call them ‘numeral classifiers’” (Tang Haiqin, 2004).
Another linguist Ding Shengshu, the first one who studied classifier as a particular word class, the term of “量词” was first suggested in his xiandai hanyu yufa jianghua 《现代汉语语法讲话》 (Modern Chinese Grammar,丁声树). In his opinion, “classifiers were always followed by demonstrative pronouns and numerals, and numerals plus classifier can be called numeral classifier” (He Jie, 2001).

2.2 The characteristics of English unit noun
In English, most of unit nouns come from common nouns, they have certain lexical meanings. They can not only express quantity, such as individual, dual, collective, but also show different shapes, volume, measurement, actions, and so on.

2.3 The functions of English unit noun
The function of English unit noun is mainly used to modify uncountable noun, but modify countable noun as well. Material nouns plus unit nouns have the function of indicating number. On the other hand, some abstract nouns are uncountable nouns. Abstract nouns plus unit nouns can make uncountable change into countable.

2.4 Research status
Recent years, a lot of essays of domestic researches on English partitive constructions focus on the pragmatics function, highlighting the image of unit nouns and means of metaphor. Liu Qingbo (2007) pointed out that many quantifiers in English are originated from analogy. Quantifiers can strengthen the representability and bring good rhetoric effect. Zhou Fengling (2007) viewed that unit nouns of target domain in analogy had different functions and features varying from modifying material nouns to individual nouns and abstract nouns. Liu Xinfang (2011) has researched on the formation of metaphorical unit nouns and the collocation relations between metaphorical unit nouns and the modified nouns. And then she has probed into the functions of metaphorical unit nouns from the aspects of rhetorics, linguistics and cognition. Zhong Guihong (2010) thought that the grammaticalization of partitive constructions in both English and Chinese is related to those theories of grammaticalization such as the evolution of semantics, the cognitive mode of metaphor and metonymy and the reanalysis and analogy of grammaticalization mechanism.
As the quantifiers in Chinese have a long-standing history, and with the theoretical framework of western grammar, many scholars continually develop researches on the comparison between Chinese and English quantifiers. According to three classifications of quantifiers in Chinese: nounal quantifiers, verbal quantifiers and adjective quantifiers, Tang Qin (2009) and Wang Xiaoling (2001) have analyzed the similarities and differences of English and Chinese in expressing the concept of amount, from the two aspects of quantifier phrase construction and sentence syntax function. Chang Yan (2001) and Guan Xia (2007) have made contrastive analysis on the positions of Chinese and English quantifiers in their own language, on their grammatical features, on their ideographic and rhetorical functions, thereby showing the common features and individual differences of the usage of quantifiers in both languages.

2.5 Summary
This chapter has settled the definitions of English unit noun as well as Chinese quantifier and provided the characteristics and functions of English unit noun. Inspired by the previous genre analysis of English unit noun and Chinese quantifier, there are few studies that discuss the varieties of unit noun and the comparable relation in English-Chinese translation between English unit noun and Chinese quantifier. Due to this reason, the author will deal with the collected unit nouns and the comparison in the following chapter.

3. Methodology

This chapter first brings out the subjects, and will present the research method and data collection. Finally, the author will provide the result that is the survey on the frequency of English unit noun.

3.1 Research objectives
It’s hard to know exactly how many unit nouns in English as well as Chinese quantifiers. Excepted for some commonly used or easily matched like piece, pair, bit, etc., others like ball, army, school, which are familiar nouns to us can act as unit noun as well.
The present study attempts to present different nouns which can act as unit nouns, and all of unit nouns come from Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary (6th Edition). Each unit noun has its own particular meaning. Therefore, it has the academic to collect and to classify the English unit noun, and it will benefit for English learners to use English unit noun easily, flexibly and vividly.

3.2 Research method and data collection
The present research follows the data collection and analysis. This method can provide research materials useful to fulfill the knowledge accumulation and sharing.
The data collection process has finally been carried out in January, 2012. The data collection process mainly consists of the following three steps: (1) the author collects the 398 subjects from the dictionary; (2) then all the subjects’ frequency is analyzed; (3) finally the author classifies the subjects into different kinds.
During this data process, the author has encountered some difficulties. For example, many uncommon words like horde, wisp, stud, hive, speck, spasm, etc. can act as unit nouns. In this situation, the author has paid more attention to find out