A corpus-based study of inanimate classifiers in Vietnamese
| dc.contributor.author | Tran, Hai Thi Thanh | |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Rosen, Nicole (Linguistics) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Wilkinson, Erin (Linguistics) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Payne, Doris (University of Oregon) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Janzen, Terry (Linguistics) | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-04-12T19:26:09Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-04-12T19:26:09Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2021-03-31 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021-03 | en_US |
| dc.date.submitted | 2021-03-31T20:32:27Z | en_US |
| dc.degree.discipline | Linguistics | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation investigates inanimate classifiers in Vietnamese to identify classifier use patterns across genres, in spoken and written discourse as well as among different age groups. The study works on three corpora namely the Vietnamese Narrative Corpus consisting of 141 folktales, the Vietnamese Online Newspaper Corpus containing 140 contemporary online newspaper articles, and the Vietnamese Spoken Corpus including 22 talk show episodes with the total duration of 14 hours. As a discourse analysis study of frequency, distribution and function of attested inanimate classifiers, it attends closely to the use of cái (inanimate), double classifiers, and other frequent classifiers in the Vietnamese corpora. The study found that the classifier frequency in spoken Vietnamese is far higher than in written language. In Vietnamese, a classifier is required for classified nouns, but not for non-classified nouns. However, cái (inanimate) frequently appears with non-classified nouns functioning as emphatics in the spoken corpus, but not in the written corpora. I argue that this may lead to the higher classifier frequency in spoken Vietnamese than in written language. Interestingly, there is a decline in classifier frequency among younger speakers compared to older speakers. The data reveals that language change may be in progress in Vietnamese in apparent time. Double classifiers, in which cái (inanimate) is constructed with a classifier, are used often in spoken Vietnamese, but not in written language. I claim that in this construction cái (inanimate) functions as an emphatic, while the other classifier performs its own function. This research found that cái (inanimate) functions as cataphoric reference in Vietnamese. A number of classifiers combining with verbs and adjectival verbs function as nominalizers to indicate different semantic types. A couple of frequent classifiers in the concurrent corpora differ from those in the narrative, suggesting language change over time. The study also found that the choice of classifiers may be dependent on the formality of the genre. The findings reveal that the Vietnamese classifier system is highly complex, and what was observed in naturalistic data of Vietnamese corpora, especially spoken discourse, is different from the traditional description of classifier usage in Vietnamese. | en_US |
| dc.description.note | May 2021 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1993/35426 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
| dc.rights | open access | en_US |
| dc.subject | Classifiers | en_US |
| dc.subject | Discourse analysis | en_US |
| dc.subject | Corpus-based study | en_US |
| dc.subject | Vietnamese | en_US |
| dc.subject | Variation | en_US |
| dc.title | A corpus-based study of inanimate classifiers in Vietnamese | en_US |
| dc.type | doctoral thesis | en_US |