A Study on the Evolution of Post-nominal Plural Expressions in Chinese Based on Tagged Corpora

Abstract

This article, basing its research on tagged corpora, obtains an exhaustive collection of post-nominal plural expressions that appeared in Old Chinese, Middle Chinese, and Pre-modern Chinese in different historical periods. According to statistics on word frequency, “deng” (等), “bei” (辈), and “men” (们) are the dominant plural expressions in each period of history. This article hence conducts a quantitative survey and provides a systematic description of these three plural expressions in regard to their collocation with proper nouns and common nouns as well as their distributions. The following observations are made on the basis of statistical evidence: In Old Chinese, the one and only plural expression was “deng” (等), which could only be used after proper nouns as a collective marker. From Middle Chinese on, especially in Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures, “deng” (等) began to be used substantially after common nouns and took on a new function of plural marking. It was also in this period that “bei” (辈) emerged as a new plural expression, mainly used after common nouns as a plural marker. When it came to Pre-modern Chinese, “deng” (等) inherited its usage in Old and Middle Chinese, being a collective marker, while the function of plural marking was taken up by the newly emerged plural expression “men” (们).