The Classifiers Zuo ®y, Jian ¶¡ and Suo ©Ò in Mandarin Chinese

Sue-mei Wu

The Ohio State University

(C) Copyright 1996 All Rights Reserved

Abstract:

Zuo ®y (seat), jian ¶¡ (division), and suo ©Ò (location) are three classifiers referring to constructions in Mandarin. Separating their uses can be a confusing task for Chinese language learners. With the hope of making this task a little easier, this study analyzes these three classifiers in order to indicate the differences among them.

1.0 The classifier zuo ®y

According to Liu (1965), zuo ®y was originally a noun meaning zuowei ®y¦ì (seat). For example: shenzuo ¯«®y (a seat of God). Therefore, 'One God' could be called shen yi zuo ¯«¤@®y.

Then zuo developed into two meanings. One meaning was zuoluo ®y¸¨ (to locate). When it was used as a classifier it referred to massive and solid objects such as shan ¤s (mountain), qiao ¾ô (bridge), and dalou ¤j¼Ó (edifice). The other meaning was zuoer ®y¨à (stand). When it was used as a classifier it referred to physical things which have stands such as zhong ÄÁ (clock) and dapao¤j¯¥ (artillery).

Below, I will focus mainly on zuo ®y which refers to constructions and examine two other related fuzzy boundary classifiers, jian ¶¡ and suo ©Ò.

1.1 Zuo ®y as a noun

The original meaning of zuo ®y is 'seat'. In Modern Mandarin, as a noun it still retains this meaning. Zuo ®y occurs as a bound morpheme in compound words such as zuowei ®y¦ì (a seat), zuoer ®y¨à (a seat).

1.2 Zuo ®y as a classifier for massive and immobile natural objects

In Mandarin Chinese zuo ®y can be used for massive, immobile natural objects such as mountains, islands, and woods.

¤@®y«C¤s 'a green mountain'

¤@®y¯î¤s 'a desolate mountain'

¤@®y©t®p 'a solitary peak

¤@®y¤p®q 'a small island'

¤@®y´ËªL 'a forest

1.3 Zuo ®y as a classifier for constructions

The classifier zuo ®y in Mandarin also refers to massive and solid constructions. It can be used as classifier for objects from as large as 'city' to as small as 'tomb'.

¤@®y«° ¥« 'a city'

¤@®y¤pÂí 'a town'

¤@®y¨®¯¸ 'a bus station'

¤@®y®c·µ µ 'a palace'

¤@®y¤j ·H 'an edifice'

¤@®y©Ð¤l 'a house'

¤@®y¤jÆU 'a large hall'

¤@®y³Õª«À] 'a museum'

¤@®y±Ð°ó ó 'a church'

¤@®y¦x¼q 'a temple'

¤@®yªá¶éé 'a garden'

¤@®yª÷¦r¶ð 'a pyramid'

¤@®y¾ô¼ÙÙ 'a bridge'

¤@®y¼X¹Ó 'a tomb'

2.0 The distinction among zuo ®y, jian ¶¡, and suo ©Ò

In section 2, we have indicated that massive and solid constructions as the cognitive basis of the classifier zuo ®y. However, there are some other classifiers such as jian ¶¡, suo ©Ò which can also refer to constructions. Based on the examples from section 2, we are going to analyze and discuss these data below.

A. jian ¶¡, zuo ®y /©Ð¤l(house), ¤jÆU(hall), ³Õª«À](museum),
	           ±Ð°ó (church),¦x¼q(temple), ¨®¯¸( bus station)
                 --both jian and zuo can refer to these constructions

B. Zuo ®y / «°¥«(city), ¤pÂí(town), ®c·µ (palace), ¤j ·H(edifice), 
                   ªá¶é (garden), ª÷¦r¶ð(pyramid), ¾ô¼Ù(bridge), 
                   ¼X¹Ó(tomb)
                 --jian cannot refer to these constructions

C. jian ¶¡ / ª×«Ç( a bed room), ±Ð«Ç(classroom), 
                   ¤æ«Ç(a little room) ¿ì¤½«Ç(office)
                 -- Zuo cannot refer to these buildings

From these examples, we can see that jian ¶¡ can replace zuo ®y to indicate those constructions in Group A, but not in Group B. In addition, only jian ¶¡ can refer to Group C. By analyzing Group A and C, we find that the constructions to which jian ¶¡ refers are smaller than those to which zuo ®y refers. And most importantly, the constructions to which only jian ¶¡ refers are all divisions of a building. In general, 'a tomb' and 'a garden' are not divisions of a building. That is the reason why even though a 'garden'and a 'tomb' are smaller than 'a classroom' and 'an office', they take zuo ®y, rather than jian ¶¡, as their classifier. Now, we conclude that although both zuo ®y and jian ¶¡ refer to constructions, zuo ®y refers to relatively massive, immobile constructions such as 'city' and 'town', while jian ¶¡ refers to relatively small ones as well as to the divisions of a building.

Another common classifier for a construction is suo ©Ò. Suo ©Ò began as a word meaning chusuo ³B©Ò, difang ¦a¤è (place), then it was used as classifier for units of construction, such as fangzi ©Ð¤l (house), gongyu ¤½´J (apartment), and fosi ¦ò¦x (temple). Below, based on the examples from section 2.0. I will discuss the differences among zuo ®y, jian ¶¡ and suo ©Ò:

A. zuo ®y  /     ©Ð¤l(house), ¤jÆU(hall), ³Õª«À](museum),
      (jian ¶¡, suo ©Ò)  ±Ð°ó(church),¦x¼q(temple), 
                         ¨®¯¸( bus staion), ¤½´J(apartment)
                         --all three classifiers can refer to these
                         constructions.

B. zuo ®y /       «°¥«(city), ¤pÂí(town), ®c·µ(palace)  
     (*jian ¶¡, suo ©Ò)  ¤j ·H(edifice), ªá¶é (garden),ª÷¦r¶ð(pyramid), 
                         ¾ô¼Ù(bridge), ¼X¹Ó(grave)
                         --only zuo can refer to these constructions

C. jian ¶¡ /      ª×«Ç( a bedroom), ±Ð«Ç(classroom),
     (*zuo ®y, *suo ©Ò)  ¤æ«Ç (a little room), ¿ì¤½«Ç(office)
	                 --only jian can refer to these
	                 constructions

D. suo ©Ò/      ¤j¾Ç(college), ¥®¸X¶é(kindergarten),
      (*jian ¶¡,* zuo ®y)   Âå°| (hospital), »È¦æ(bank), 
                         ¬ã¨s©Ò(institute), ¾÷ºc(organization)
                         --only suo can refer to these
                         constructions

Like jian ¶¡, suo ©Ò can occur in Group A, but cannot occur in roup B. That suggests the constructions to which jian ¶¡ and suo©Ò refer are smaller than those to which zuo ®y refers. For example, jian ¶¡and suo ©Ò cannot refer to 'city', 'town'. In addition, only jian ¶¡ can refer to the constructions in Group C. This supports that 'a division of a building' is the unique feature of the classifier jian ¶¡. In other words, the classifier jian ¶¡ is used to indicate a smaller division of a building.

As for Group D, only suo ©Ò can refer to these constructions. This suggests that jian ¶¡¡ and zuo ®y only refer to the constructions themselves, while suo ©Ò refers to not only the constructions themselves but also the organizations in those constructions. For example, the phrase, yisuo daxue ¤@©Ò¤j¾Ç 'a university', indicates the entire organization including buildings, professors, students and staff. Therefore, the feature of suo ©Ò is that it can indicate not only the construction but also the organization which is located inside the construction.

2.1 Zuo ®y, jian ¶¡ and suo ©Ò in some dialects

As pointed out by Tai (1992), classifier systems vary considerably across Chinese dialects. Below, I am going to show that these three classifiers, zuo ®y jian ¶¡ and suo ©Ò, have different uses in different dialects. The usage of these three classifiers in Mandarin, Shanghai dialect, Southern Min dialect, and Cantonese is shown below:

constructionMandarinShanghaiSouthern MinCantonese
«°¥«(city) ®y®y,(#­Ó)­Ó®y,(#­Ó)
¨®¯¸(bus station)®y,¶¡)®y,(#­Ó)­Ó®y,(#­Ó)
¤j¼Ó(edifice)®y,¶¡®y,¶¡¶¡®y,¶¡
±Ð°ó(church)®y,¶¡®y,¶¡¶¡ ®y,¶¡
¦x¼q(temple)®y,¶¡®y¶¡¶¡
¾ô¼Ù(a bridge)®y®y(±ø)(±ø)
¼X¹Ó(a tomb)®y°¦­Ó­Ó
ª×«Ç(a bedroom)¶¡¶¡¶¡¶¡
±Ð«Ç(classroom)¶¡¶¡¶¡¶¡
¿ì¤½«Ç(office)¶¡¶¡¶¡¶¡
¤j¾Ç(college)©Ò¶¡,°¦¶¡ ¶¡,(@©Ò)
¥®¸X¶é(kindergarten)©Ò¶¡,°¦¶¡ ¶¡,(@©Ò)
Âå°|(hospital)©Ò¶¡,°¦¶¡ ¶¡,(@©Ò)
»È¦æ(bank)©Ò¶¡,°¦¶¡ ¶¡,(@©Ò)
¬ã¨s©Ò(institute)©Ò¶¡,°¦¶¡ ¶¡,(@©Ò)

®y,(#­Ó)-- means ge ­Ó is more prevalent than zuo ®y in this case.
¶¡,(@©Ò)-- means suo ©Ò is used in written Cantonese and jian ¶¡ is
		  used in colloquial Cantonese.
(±ø)-- means these three classifiers cannot refer to the object, 
	          but tiao ±ø can.

First, it is striking that the classifiers zuo ®y and suo ©Ò do not exist in the Southern Min dialect. In other words, the only classifier for indicating constructions in the Southern Min dialect is jian ¶¡. Secondly, in the Shanghai dialect, the classifiers for indicating constructions are zuo ®y, jian ¶¡, and zhi °¦. It is worth noting that although the classifier zhi °¦ can be used for constructions in the Shanghai dialect, its use is parallel to the use of suo ©Ò in Mandarin. As mentioned before, the function of the classifier suo ©Ò is to indicate the building as well as the organization. Does zhi °¦ here also have the same function as suo ©Ò does in Mandarin? Zhi °¦, in general, refers to animals in Chinese. Why can it refer to constructions in the Shanghai dialect? Perhaps Shanghai people use zhi °¦ to indicate these constructions because the salient feature of an organization, the members, are human beings (belonging to the animal family). Finally, though suo ©Ò can occur in Cantonese, it is used only in the written language.

3.0 Conclusions

Based on the above observations, we conclude that the three classifiers, zuo ®y, jian ¶¡, and suo ©Ò are related to one another, but that each picks out a salient perceptual feature in referring to a construction. Their distinctions are: zuo ®y is used for 'blocks or masses' of objects that are on a relatively great scale and are immobile such as a mountain, island, building, bridge, city, or pagoda. Jian ¶¡ is used for 'rooms' of a building, that is, a division of a building, such as apartments, and classrooms. Suo ©Ò is used for names of organizations that customarily represent both the structures and the people that make up the organization. Moreover, the building to which jian ¶¡ refers is smaller than the ones to which zuo ®y and suo ©Ò refer. Furthermore, zuo ®y and jian ¶¡ indicate buildings themselves. That is, they modify only the buildings. Whereas, suo ©Ò can refer to not only the building but also the organization which is located inside the building.

In discussing these three classifiers, we have pointed out that each of the three classifiers zuo ®y, jian ¶¡ and suo ©Ò has its own salient perceptual property which serves as the typicality condition for categorization. In addition, although classifier systems across Chinese dialects contain great differences, these differences can be more systematically understood in terms of a cognitive-based functional approach. We hope this discussion can be useful to Chinese language learners who are trying to differentiate these three classifiers.

NOTES:

1. The data here are based on the following sources:

A. Lu Shuxiang. ed. 1981. Xiandai Hanyu Babaici
(²{¥Nº~»y¤K¦Êµü)

B. Guo Xianzhen. ed. 1986. Xiandai Hanyu Liangci Shouce
(²{¥Nº~»y¶qµü¤â¥U)

C. CKIP (Chinese Knowledge Information Processing
Group), 1989. Guoyu de Cilei Fenxi (°ê»yªºµüÃþ¤ÀªR)
Ch.2:Nfa(¶qµü)

2. The dialect data are based on the following sources:

A. Southern Min Dialect:

1. Zhang Zhengxing. 1983 Taiwan Minnan Fangyan Jilue
(»OÆW»Ô«n¤è¨¥°O²¤)

2. Some OSU students who are Taiwanese.

B. Shanghai Dialect: Yao Ji, a native speaker of Shanghai dialect.

C. Cantonese: Cindy Wong, who is from Hongkong and speaks Cantonese.

References

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CKIP (Chinese Knowledge Information Processing Group). ¤¤¬ã°| µü®w¤p²Õ 1989. Guoyu de Cilei Fenxi °ê»yªºµüÃþ¤ÀªR. Taipei: Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica press.

Erbaugh, Mary. 1986. Taking Stock: The Development of Chinese Noun Classifiers Historically and In Young Children. In Craig, ed., pp. 399- 436.

Guo Xianzhen. ed. 1986. Xiandai Hanyu Liangci Shouce ²{¥Nº~»y¶qµü¤â¥U (A Handbook For the Modern Mandarin Classifiers). Beijing. Zhongguo Heping Bookstore Press.

Liu Shiru. 1965. Weijin Nanbei Chao Liangci Yanjiu ÃQ®Ê«n¥_´Â¶qµü¬ã¨s (A study of the classifiers of the Weijin Nanbei Dynasties). Beijing. Zhonghua Bookstore Press.

Lu Shuxiang. ed. 1981. Xiendai Hanyu Babaici ²{¥Nº~»y¤K¦Êµü (800 words in modern Chinese). Beijing: Commerce Press.

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Zhang Zhenxing. 1983. Taiwan Minnan Fangyan Jilue »OÆW»Ô«n¤è¨¥°O²¤. Fuzhou: Fujian Renmin Chubanshe.