The Application of Emic Theory to the Chinese Noun Study
Yan Jun-ron · Hanyu xuexi · 2005
The world is made up of substance which is in constant motion. Correspondingly, it is universal that there is the distinction between noun and verb. However, peculiarity exists. That is, different language expresses it in different ways. Prototypical nouns possess the attributes such as , which is universal, while some nouns have the attributes of in some language, such as in Chinese. is universal while some language expresses it in number while others in quantifiers. Analogy exists between phonology and semantics. and are as a sememe, which are realized in the form of different variations. Take the study of Chinese nouns as example, big progress had been made in the early 1990s, that is the big jump from the classical category to the prototypical one. And now the great leap is made by Dr. Liu’s Multiple-perspective Study of Chinese Nouns, which finds out the motivation of the realization of sememes on the basis of large corpus and statistic.