An Iconicity study on Chinese Classifiers:
Use Dream of the Red Chamber as an example
Wuna Zhou
Ph.D. Candidate at School of International Studies, Zhejiang University
After the concept “iconicity” was brought up, it was widely discussed in many academic realms, such as linguistics, communication and semiotics. The Chiense language is system based on iconic images in our daily interaction (Tai, 1994). Considering the concept of “iconicity”, this paper sorts out and analyzes the use of classifiers in the Chinese classic Dream of the Red Chamber. A classification of dot, line and dimension is made at first, and in combination with the specific contexts in the novel, it is concluded that the classifiers in Chinese are highly iconic.
It is noted that the Chinese classifiers have long been a headache for foreign learners (He, 2008). In the help of iconic images of Chinese classifiers, students are more likely to understand the underlying origins and use them correctly in various contexts. Therefore, the discovery does not only bring a new interpretation to the literary language, but also has a great significance in the practice of TCFL (teaching Chinese as a foreign language).