Chapter 5 Conclusion
5.1 Observations when Identifying True Classifiers
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Chapter 5 Conclusion
5.1 Observations When Identifying True Classifiers
5.1.1 Word classes that are deleted the most
It has long been a controversy on what could be identified as a true C. This is not only because C lists are inconsistent in previous studies, but also because the definitions of Cs vary in different studies. Japanese is a C language, so studies and dictionaries have listed many Japanese Cs, with a total of 673 possible Cs listed in previous works.
After the syntactic and semantic tests, there are only 115 true Japanese Cs left, the other 553 items are deleted. Among these deleted items, most of them are nouns and units of measurement. This may be because nouns and Cs follow numerals, and to native Japanes speakers, they all belong to the category of counters and nouns.
The second most deleted item is an M, because in traditional linguistic studies, there is no clear distinction between Cs and Ms. If Her’s model is used, the problem would be solved, as many Ms wrongly identified as Cs could be deleted.
5.1.2 Issues of Cs as noun categorizing devices
After a bottom-up categorization on all of the 115 true Cs, it indicates that Cs
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tend to categorize different kinds of nouns based on “animate”, “shape,” and
“function” features. The most interesting point was that Japanese Cs denoting functional features far more than others, and mostly “shape” is a very important feature in other C languages. However, the number of “functional” C is a lot more than other categories.
5.1.3 Issus of core Cs
Japanese Cs with kanji (“漢字”, Chinese characters) are more formal and classical. Some of the Cs listed, for example “旒,” “儀,” and “幀”, are possibly borrowed from classical Chinese. Even in Chinese, the character like “幀” is literarily used in formal situations. It is possible that they would be more easily eliminated in contemporary Japanese. This issue brings about the other issues in teaching Japanese as a second language.
5.2 Suggestions in Japanese Teaching
When Taiwanese people learn Japanese as a second foreign language, “Cs” are one of the essential lesson in beginner classes. Mostly, it is called “量詞” (Measure Words) in textbooks.
However, most textbooks focus on the grammar of other word classes like verbs and adjectives. Only some of the textbooks provide a “C list”. Moreover, the number
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of Cs listed in Japanese textbooks in Taiwan is often very small, as shown in table 15.
True Classifiers Other word classes
《大家的日本語》初級 I
P180-181
人 枚 台 冊 着 回 個 軒 本 匹
番(ordinal number) 杯 足(M) 階(ordinal
number)
歲(N, years old)
《現代日本語》
P61.76.77.80
人 冊 つ 個 枚
本 階(ordinal number)
足 杯(M)
《互動日本語》
P166.167
つ 個 冊 本 台 名 人 尾 枚 回 匹 着
杯 階 (M) 歲(N, years old) 番(N, number)
《E 世代日本語》
P213-215
匹 つ 台 人 枚
回 冊 個 本 円(N, dollars) 番(N, number) 歲(N, years old) 足 階 杯(M)
Table 15. So-called “量詞” listed in Japanese textbooks
First of all, the lists are all extremely simple, and most of the textbooks list the same Cs. Among these textbooks, 《大家的日本語》 is the leading Japanese textbook in Taiwan, but it only lists 11 true Cs. The list in the textbook is not sufficient to
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include all the 27 core-Cs, or even all 115 true Cs in Japanese.
Secondly, some of the morphemes listed are in fact of other word classes. For example, “足” is actually an M. It would result in confusion beacuse all Cs denote necessarily one object, while Ms like “足” denotes “a pair” or “ two” objects. This translation is confusing for beginning Japanese learners. It is difficult for them to understand why “一冊書” denotes “one book” while “一足靴” indicates “two shoes.”
Thirdly, all teaching Japanese as a second language textbooks tend to list the
“spelling” of these Cs and record the phonetics change with numerals from one to ten, or even hundreds and thousands. However, the most important thing in teaching is on how to use Japanese Cs and which nouns a C could attach to. Cs are profilers - they would put a focus on some or all parts of object. However, this characteristic is not mentioned.
As a result, Japanese learners will learn how to spell Japanese Cs, but not the
“feature” a C denotes (like “本” denoting 2D long objects), or “which nouns” Cs could attach to. This is a serious problem because Taiwanese learners could not know how to construct [Num C Noun] constituents in Japanese after using the textbooks.
Therefore, to list all core-Cs with the feature they profile is an important task when editing these textbooks.
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5.3 Implications and Further Research
The syntactic differences of separate C sentences (as shown in example 1) are not considered in this thesis. The syntactic differences and genitive markers could be studied. Even though the truth value of different sentences is the same, the difference in the structure and topic focus could be future research topics.
The second topic worth studying is further categorization of Cs. Cs are only categorized as “animate,” “shape,” and “function” features. A further and more precise categorization could be made.
The third is a more delicate frequency analysis. The aim of this thesis is using syntactic tests and identifying true Cs out of a C list in previous studies. Evaluating the usage frequency of Japanese Cs with a questionnaire could only facilitate a preliminary analysis on the usage. This is only a pilot study, a more thorough survey on corpus study or frequency analysis could be done in the future. In addition, core-Cs might change decades later because the core-Cs listed in Downing (1986) are not the same as the list in this thesis. The task of eliminating Cs in Japanese could be an important research topic for future studies as well.
As to application of linguistic studies, psychological experiments or cognition studies could be done to prove Cs and Ms are different in Japanese people’s minds, the differences might possibly be revealed in human brain while using Cs or Ms.
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D. 請問您曾在日本生活幾年？______________(1 至 117 題選項)很常使用／有時使用／普通／很少使用／完全不使用
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85.「次」じ ex: 試験（しけん）一「次」
86.「入」しお ex: 染（しみ）一「入」
87.「炷」しゅ ex: 線香（せんこう）一「炷」
88.「舟」しゅう ex: 船（せん）一「舟」
89.「巡」じゅん ex: 猛攻（もう‐こう）一「巡」
90.「乗」じょう ex: 車（くるま）一「乗」
91.「帖」じょう ex: 御文章（ごぶんしょう）一「帖」
92.「背」せ ex: 鞍（くら）一「背」
93.「世帯」せたい ex: 家（いえ）一「世帯」
94.「尊」そん ex: 像（ぞう）一「尊」
95.「幀」てい ex: 画幅（がふく）一「幀」
96.「度」ど・たび ex: 体験（たいけん）一「度」
97.「道」どう ex: 光（こう）一「道」
98.「刷毛」はけ ex: 描線（びょうせん）一「刷毛」
99.「場」ば ex: 夢（ゆめ）一「場」
100.「便」びん ex: 札幌便（さっぽろびん）一「便」
101.「遍」へん ex: 体験（たいけん）一「遍」
102.「ユニット」 ex: 酵素（こうそ）一「ユニット」
103.「旒」りゅう ex: 旗（き）一「旒」
104.「両」りょう ex: 車（くるま）一「両」
105.「朵」だ ex: 花（はな）一「朵」
106.「校」こう ex: 学校（がっこう）一「校」
107.「部」ぶ ex: 作（さ）一「部」
108.「丁」ちょう ex: 鉄砲（てっぽう）一「丁」
109.「具」ぐ ex: 鎧兜（かぶと）一「具」
110.「杯」はい ex: 烏賊（いか）一「杯」
111.「巻」かん ex: フィルム一「巻」
112.「口」くち ex: 保険（ほけん）一「口」
113.「行」こう ex: 銀行（ぎんこう）一「行」
114.「面」めん ex: 硯（すずり）一「面」
115.「垂」たれ ex: 暖簾（のうれん）一「垂」
116.「点」てん ex: 焼き物（やきもの）一「点」
117.「膳」ぜん ex: 割り箸（わりばし）一「膳」