在孤立型語言中的屈折量詞：威寧苗語的稀有現象

Classifier Declinations in an Isolating Language: On a Rarity in Weining Ahmao

本文分析了在孤立型語言中少見的量詞系統。威寧苗語是中國貴州西部苗瑤語系中的一種語言，每個量詞可有十二種屈折變化的形式，在亞洲其他的孤立型語言中沒有這種現象，包括其他苗語也不存在這種現象，除威寧苗語外，其他語言的每個量詞只是一個單獨的詞，不能有屈折變化。本文著重從共時語音、語義、語用及句法結構的角度分析了威寧苗語的量詞系統。並在文章附錄列出了三種苗語和威寧苗語對應關係的量詞。

In this paper, we scrutinize a rare classifier system in an isolating language. Weining Ahmao, a Miao-Yao language spoken in western Guizhou Province in the PRC, inflects each of its noun classifiers in twelve basic forms and stands in stark contrast to other isolating languages of East Asia (including other Miao languages), in which nominal classifiers are unique indeclinable morphemes. This paper focuses on a synchronic analysis of all aspects of the classifier system; i.e. a representation of its phonological, semantic, and pragmatic properties as well as the syntactic constructions in which the classifiers are involved. A data list of cognate classifiers from four Miao languages encapsulates the uniqueness of the Ahmao inflectional classifiers.