Classifiers

[Filip1]

Hi,

 

I want to ask here is there any website (or an app) where I can just type in the noun in a search panel so I can see which classifier goes with it? I use Pleco, but Pleco doesn't have that option for all nouns.

[Shelley]

The closest thing i could find to what i think you are looking for is an android app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=es.aroundpixels.hskcllite&hl=en

 

I have not used it so I can't comment on it.

[Altair]

I don't know any good online sources, but you may want to note that classifiers are somewhat less rigid than many grammar books imply.  Not all speakers use the same ones, and sometimes they will vary according to level of formality.

 

Many words have multiple possible ones, sometimes depending on the nuance you want to convey.  Both 一部电影 and 一场电影 are possible translations of "a movie," but the first is a better reference to the work of art and the second to the experience of watching it.  The word  房子 with 间 means "room," but with 栋、座、所 means "house."  It can even be used with 排 when you are talking about rows of houses.

 

Even words like 书 that have relatively fixed classifiers might just take 个 when thought of as a miscellaneous object, such as in a shopping cart full of various things, especially in informal usage.

 

Compare the Chinese situation to what English has to refer to various groups of animals:  "a herd of cows," "a team/herd of oxen," "a flight/flock of geese," "a murder of crows," "a litter of kittens," "a troop of baboons," "an exaltation of larks", etc.  Some are common terms; some are not.  Some have specialized implications about the number of animals or the nature of their association; some don't.

 

Because of all these issues, I think dictionaries tend not to try to list measure words for each noun, but focus on unusual or unpredictable associations that are still fairly dependable.  I find the dictionaries I have in Pleco to be pretty good.  The only "comprehensive" lists I have seen are in certain grammar books or specialized books.

[li3wei1]

I've got one textbook that gives the classifier for dog as 条，and another that says it's 只.

[skylee]

Re #4, also see this thread -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/20851-%E4%B8%80%E5%8F%AA%E7%8B%97%E3%80%80%EF%BD%8F%EF%BD%92%E3%80%80%E4%B8%80%E6%9D%A1%E7%8B%97/