Chinese classifierとは 意味・読み方・使い方

In the modern Chinese languages, words known as classifiers or measure words (simplified Chinese: 量词; traditional Chinese: 量詞; pinyin: liàngcí) are used along with numbers to define the quantity of a given object, or with demonstratives such as "this" and "that" to identify specific objects. Classifiers are bound morphemes: they do not have any meaning by themselves and are always used in conjunction with a noun or another content word. Whenever a noun is preceded by a number or a demonstrative, a classifier must come in between. The choice whether to use a number or demonstrative at all, however, is up to the speaker; classifiers may often be avoided by simply using a bare noun. Phrases consisting of a number, a classifier, and a noun, such as 一个人 (yí ge rén, one-CL person), are known as "classifier phrases". Some linguists have proposed that the use of classifier phrases may be guided less by grammar and more by stylistic or pragmatic concerns on the part of a speaker who may be trying to foreground new or important information. Finally, in addition to these uses, classifiers may be used in variant ways: when placed after a noun rather than before it, or when repeated, a classifier signifies a plural or indefinite quantity.