Abstract:

This paper presents the results of a detailed investigation of grammatical inflexion for number in spoken Modern Standard Chinese and explores whether the use of the plural marker men conforms to the guidelines laid down in standard grammar reference works. For the purposes of studying morphological features in context a new source of spoken language samples is identified: published transcripts of television broadcasts. This study focusses on spoken Modern Standard Chinese in mainland China, as exemplified in a popular Chinese chat show over the period 2003 to 2006. The analysis of the data shows significant discrepancies between the traditional grammatical analysis of the plural marker men and its actual use in real-life situations, with the so-called plural suffix employed to perform many more functions than have traditionally been ascribed to it. Moreover, a detailed analysis of the contexts in which the plural suffix is used suggests that to maintain that inflexion for number is optional in Chinese, as many grammar textbooks do, may be somewhat misleading.

Author: Angela Cook