A Comparative Study of Chinese Collective Classifiers and their Thai Equivalents

A Case Study of Chinese Collective Classifier “ba”(kam)

Abstract

Classifier is a word that accompanies the other noun to describe feature, size or amount of nouns. (Kamchai Thonglor, 2011: 197) Chinese and Thai both are the languages that have classifiers. It is good for learners to know and use classifiers correctly and appropriately for the nouns. This article aims to study Chinese collective classifier, “ba”, and its Thai equivalents. The theory that is used in this study is the Prototype Theory of categorization of cognitive linguistics. The result shows that Chinese collective classifier “ba” can be used with many kinds of nouns. 1) The noun that can be picked up, grabbed and held in one hand, 2) liquid substances, and 3) abstract nouns. In Thai, Chinese collective classifier “ba” is equivalent to “kam” when it is used with things that can be grabbed and held in one hand such as seeds, powder and things that have long feature. In addition, it can also be interpreted to another word that shows a great amount such as “pun”, “tem”, etc., which depends on the context. Lastly, in some case, it does not give any meaning in Thai.