Why don't some nouns need measure words?

[jadeblomma]

Why is there no measure word (个) for for example 年 and 天?

[roddy]

Would really appreciate it if people could use meaningful titles ('Measure Words' is hardly specific) and show an attempt to have tried to answer their own questions. A Google for 'chinese measure words 天' turns up this as the first result.

[jbradfor]

True, all true.... but....

The "explanation" for the OP's question in that link is "Some Chinese nouns have "built-in" measure words, in other words they don't need additional measure words. They can be used just as they are in English (number word + noun). Not many nouns can be used in this way. "

I realize that often when it comes to languages, there is no "why", that's just the way language is. But I too am curious if anyone can provide some insight as to why 年 doesn't take a measure word. "Because it doesn't" just isn't very satisfying to me

[Oddly, a google search for "三个年" returns over 24 million hits, such as this one: http://www.hugd.com/xinzixun/2010-02/26/cms89355article.shtml . But from the context, and the fact that it is in quotation marks in the article, it has a different meaning.]

[anonymoose]

I think it's more a case of measure words substituting for nouns.

As you may know, when then noun is clear from context, it can often be omitted, leaving just the measure word. For example:

A: 你买了几本书？

B: 两本。

In the situation above, the relevent noun (书) is introduced in the question, and thus since it is understood in the response, in can be omitted, leaving just 本 on its own.

In some situations, the relevant noun can be readily understood from context, even if it hasn't explicity been stated previously. For example:

这本书实在太贵了，竟花了我三百多块。

Here 块 is the measure word for 钱 (and indeed 钱 can be placed after 块), but it is not obligatory to put 钱 there since it is readily understood from context.

Similarly with 年 or 天. These are measure words for 时间. So in fact, if you want to say "three years", you could say 三年时间, but since 时间 is implicity understood, you can say just 三年.

[jbradfor]

Interesting..... but doesn't both 月 and 分钟 take a measure word? And aren't they units of time as well?

[anonymoose]

Well don't forget that if you put a number directly before 月, it then becomes the name of a month, so a separate measure word is needed to avoid confusion.

As for 分钟, 分 is the measure word for 钟.

[Koxinga]

How does one say, for example, three years (as the amount of time, not year 3 CE)?

[anonymoose]

三年 or 三个年.

[Koxinga]

So only the context makes it different from the year 3?

[jadeblomma]

Anonymoose!

Thank you for your pedagogical answer! Now it's all clear!

[jbradfor]

That makes some sense. If you look at the list of nouns that don't take a measure word (from roddy's link), almost all are units: time, distance, weight, or money. All of which, as you said, could be thought a measure word for something else (e.g. "three inches (of distance)").

The ones that doesn't seem to fit that category are 页 and 站.

[skylee]

三個年 sounds interesting.

PS - There is a very famous song called 三年. Click here to listen to Cai Qin's version.

[anonymoose]

The ones that doesn't seem to fit that category are 页 and 站.

I think they also have corresponding nouns.

站 can be the measure word for 路.

As for 页, I'm not sure exactly. 纸 maybe.

[Glenn]

For some reason on the Taiwanese version of Facebook 人 doesn't get a MW sometimes, like 3人覺得這個讚. It almost makes me feel like I'm looking at Japanese. I remeber there being an explanation that used 人 in Yip and Rimmington's comprehensive grammar, but it didn't apply to this case. Anyone have any ideas about it?