In
linguistics, measure words are words (or
morphemes) that are used in combination with a numeral to indicate an amount of something represented by some
noun.
Description
Measure words denote a unit or measurement and are used with
mass noun
In linguistics, a mass noun, uncountable noun, non-count noun, uncount noun, or just uncountable, is a noun with the syntactic property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete elemen ...
s (uncountable nouns), and in some cases also with
count nouns. For instance, in
English, ' is a mass noun and thus one cannot say "three muds", but one can say "three
drops of mud", "three
pails of mud", etc. In these examples, ''drops'' and ''pails'' function as measure words. One can also say "three
pails of shells"; in this case the measure word ''pails'' accompanies a count noun (''shells'').
The term ''measure word'' is also sometimes used to refer to
numeral classifiers
A classifier (abbreviated or ) is a word or affix that accompanies nouns and can be considered to "classify" a noun depending on the type of its referent. It is also sometimes called a measure word or counter word. Classifiers play an importan ...
, which are used with count nouns in some languages. For instance, in English no extra word is needed when saying "three people", but in many
East Asian languages a numeral classifier is added, just as a measure word is added for uncountable nouns in English. For example, to say ''one dog'' and ''three dogs'' in Chinese, one would need to say ''yīzhīgǒu'' (
simplified 一只狗,
traditional
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
一隻狗) and ''sānzhīgǒu'' (simplified 三只狗, traditional 三隻狗) respectively, which could be literally translated as ''one animal dog'' and ''three animal dog'' respectively. There are numerous Chinese measure words, and nouns differ in what measure words they can use. While many linguists maintain a distinction between measure words and numeral classifiers, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. For instance, materials for teaching
Chinese as a second language generally refer to
Chinese classifiers
The modern Chinese varieties make frequent use of what are called classifiers or measure words. One use of classifiers is when a noun is qualified by a numeral known as a noun phrase. When a phrase such as "one person" or "three books" is tra ...
as "measure words". The corresponding Chinese term is (), which can be directly translated as "quantity word".
Most measure words in English correspond to
units of measurement or containers, and are themselves count nouns rather than
grammatical particle
In grammar, the term ''particle'' (abbreviated ) has a traditional meaning, as a part of speech that cannot be inflected, and a modern meaning, as a function word associated with another word or phrase, generally in order to impart meaning. Altho ...
s:
*one ''quart'' of water
*three ''cups'' of coffee
*four ''kernels'' of corn, three ''ears'' of corn, two ''bushels'' of corn
Though similar in construction, fractions are not measure words. For example, in "seven-eighths of an apple" the fraction acts as a noun. Compare that to "seven slices of apple" where "apple" is a mass noun and does not require the article "an". Combining the two, e.g. "seven-eighths of a slice of apple", makes it clear the fraction must be a noun referring to a part of another countable noun.
In many languages, including the East Asian languages referred to above, the analogous constructions do not include any equivalent of the English ''of''. In
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, for example, ''ein Glas Bier'' means "a glass
fbeer". This is interesting since both languages are
West Germanic languages, making them closely related to each other. However, the equivalent of the English ''of'' is common in
Romance languages such as
Spanish,
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, and
Portuguese. In Spanish "a glass of beer" is "un vaso
de cerveza", in French it is "un verre
de bière", and in Portuguese it is "um copo
de cerveja".
Classifiers versus measure words
Classifiers play a similar role to measure words, except that measure words denote a particular quantity of something (a drop, a cupful, a pint, etc.), rather than the inherent countable units associated with a
count noun. Classifiers are used with count nouns; measure words can be used with mass nouns (e.g. "two pints of mud"), and can also be used when a count noun's quantity is not described in terms of its inherent countable units (e.g. "two pints of acorns").
However, the terminological distinction between classifiers and measure words is often blurred – classifiers are commonly referred to as measure words in some contexts, such as Chinese language teaching, and measure words are sometimes called ''mass-classifiers'' or similar.
See also
*
Collective noun
*
Count noun
*
List of collective nouns
In the English language, animals have different names depending on whether they are male, female, young, domesticated, or in groups.
The best-known source of many English words used for collective groupings of animals is '' The Book of Saint A ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Measure Word
Parts of speech