¹ In the terminology of Charles F. Hockett, the present study is a synchronic analysis using the philological method. See Implications of Bloomfield's Algonquian studies, Lang. 24.119 (1948).

² All examples in this paper are taken from the text of Yu³-yang² tsa²-tsu³. Where a noun appears in square brackets, it should be understood that it occurs in an earlier position in the same passage, and that the combination of number-word and classifier refers back to it even though separated from it by several intervening words.

³ The term ‘number’ throughout is used to mean a number-word or a number-word substitute, of which the most common is shu ⁴ ‘several’. Unlike the colloquial dialect of Peip'ing, interrogative and demonstrative adjectives do not require a classifier.

⁴ I have followed the usual convention of using the Wade-Giles romanization, with superior numerals indicating tones, as if the words were pronounced in the present-day standard dialect of Peip'ing. Words in parentheses after a cited phrase give a word-for-word gloss; the English equivalent follows in quotation marks.

⁵ In other texts of the same period I have occasionally observed the order noun–number, with the number a monosyllabic word. The context of such constructions is usually a statistical enumeration, e.g. ‘cities—ten; towns—a thousand, etc.‘ At an earlier period this pattern seems to have been more general.

⁶ This is by no means an exhaustive list of the classifiers used in the classical style.

⁷ The number following each classifier gives its location in R. H. Mathews, A Chinese-English dictionary (revised ed.; Cambridge, Mass., 1943). This reference will facilitate identification of the graphs.

⁸ This classifier might with greater consistency be listed under 2b below.

⁹ The expression kuai ⁴ shu ⁴ shu ⁴ (lacking the classifier) means ‘the number of juniper trees’. The word shu ⁴ ‘several’ means ‘number’ when used as a noun.

¹⁰ Liang ³ ‘two’ is equivalent to erh ⁴ in the classical language. In modern colloquial speech liang ³ is used exclusively before a classifier, while erh ⁴ is used in serial counting and with some measure-words of old standing. On these two words see Charles F. Hockett, Problems of morphemic analysis, Lang. 23.329 (1947).

¹¹ Yuen Ren Chao, in his Concise dictionary of spoken Chinese xxviii–xxix (Cambridge, Mass., 1947), gives an accurate description of the classifiers in Mandarin Chinese. In addition to ‘auxiliary nouns proper’ (= classifiers in my terminology) he notes two special groups: ‘measure words’ like ‘feet’, and ‘temporary measure words’ like ‘cup’. I include both these categories under one heading.

¹² The tendency of syntactically complex numbers to follow the noun seems to be related, in the opinion of Yuen Ren Chao, to sentence or phrase rhythm; but the subject of rhythm in literary Chinese, as a feature of style influencing the syntax, is almost entirely unexplored. It may be observed that number groups of two ‘words’ appear most frequently after noun groups which are also composed of two ‘words’.

¹³ In speaking of a single item it is not essential to use the number ‘one’, e.g. yu ³ fan ⁴ seng ¹ (there-was Indian monk) ‘there was an Indian monk’.

¹⁴ Chinese ‘nouns’ may be freely used in the literary style as ‘verbs’, and conversely. Their function in any given instance is determined by the syntax. Some words, however, may be described as ‘functioning usually as nouns’, others as ‘functioning usually as verbs’. Our present example might be construed thus: ‘ten paces of penetration’.

¹⁵ Cf. fn. 14. Chinese ‘adjectives’ function like ‘verbs’; i.e. they may serve as predicates in verbal-type sentences. Like verbs, adjectives may be described in certain syntactical situations as nouns. Here the example might be construed ‘four feet of length’.