Structure of Classifiers and Measure Words: A Lexical Functional Account

Classifiers (C) and measure words (M) occupy the same slot in a [Num C/M N] phrase, where semantically M is substantive and C is null. Thus, M does, and C does not, block numeral quantification or adjectival modification to the noun (Her and Hsieh's 2010, Zhang 2011). Some syntactic accounts thus assign C/M two different structures (e.g., Zhang 2011). However, C/M behave the same otherwise and are unified mathematically as the multiplier (1 and ~1 respectively) (Au Yeung 2005, 2007, Her 2010, 2011a). Thus, some accounts can be unified under a uniform left-branching structure for C/M, others right-branching. Whether split or unified, each type of accounts has its drawbacks. This paper adopts the Lexical Functional Grammar and contends that C/M share the same left-branching c-(onstituent) structure and yet differ in their f-(unctional) structure, where C serves as a co-head with N but M is the head of the QUANTIFIER function. The f-structure proposed reflects the insight that, cognitively, C, not M, serves to profile an essential feature of N, in the sense of Fillmore (1982), and also captures the restrictional restrictions between C and N.