earticle

영어

One of well known ways to quantify an event is via quantifying an object in the assumption that the quantification force of an object can be transferred to an event. Unlike this common means to quantify an event, there is another way to contribute to event quantification with a verbal classifier. A verbal classifier consists of a classifier and a numeral and it quantifies an event denoted by the VP, similar to a nominal classifier that quantifies a noun. This paper examines a verbal classifier in Mandarin in comparison to a similar type of adverbial in English, Russian, and Finnish. It is shown that verbal classifiers in Mandarin are also a means to quantify an event like adverbials in those languages. However, this paper shows that verbal classifiers in Mandarin have interesting differences from the adverbials in those languages. For example, unlike Russian or Finnish, verbal classifiers in Mandarin are not (accusative) case marked. Moreover, unlike those languages, verbal classifiers in Mandarin are associated with a particular type of an event, namely semelfactives. This paper provides evidence that verbal classifiers in Mandarin are associated with the countability of semelfactives. The consequence of this paper suggests that semlefactives can be viewed as an independent class of an event, which is not a common assumption in the literature.