馬來語量詞「Buah」之語料庫研究

Numeral Classifier Buah in Malay: A Corpus-based Study

本論文針對標準馬來語之量詞「buah」進行研究。「buah」可區分無特定型態或形體，且具差異性之名詞，因此「buah」是否為「general classifier」開始引起討論。本研究分析5,009 篇，字數超過100 萬字之馬來西亞新聞語料中，以「buah」分類之名詞，研究認為「buah」除區分語意外，亦賦有文化意涵；進一步探討「buah」各種含義之相關性，發現「buah」的含義與各類「產物」（工藝、通訊、自然或思想等）之衍生義有隱喻關連；由語料庫分析「buah」之語意，並提出兩種篩選方式，得到「buah」並非「general classifier」之結論。

This paper examines the classifier buah in Standard Malay in Malaysia. Manystudies (e.g. Adams & Conklin 1973, Allan 1977, Saalbach & Imai 2005) have agreed that classifiers are closely related to categorization. In Malay, it has been suggested that the classifier buah is able to classify things that do not have definite types and shapes. Its classification of varied and seemingly dissimilar nouns raises the question of whether buah is a general classifier. By analyzing nouns classified by buah in Standard Malay from a collection of 5,009 news articles in Malaysia, consisting of over a million words, this paper argues that buah not only has a semantic function but also serves a cultural role. This paper also investigates the connection between the different senses of buah and shows that its senses are often metaphorically linked to ‘products’ (e.g. products of artifacts, products of telecommunication, products of nature, products of thoughts, etc.). Through a corpus-based analysis, we discern the meanings of buah and further postulate two possible mechanisms for its selection, a result that eliminates the status of buah as a general classifier.