Dropping measure words (esp after 这)

[Apollys]

So one of the first things I learned about Chinese is that they have these things called measure words and you always have to use them. Now it seems Chinese is a bit like quantum physics, when they tell you: sorry, we actually lied to you before, but what you learned before applies pretty accurately most of the time.

I have encountered many sentences now with the measure word omitted after 这. A couple examples of of the noun phrases I have seen are 这音乐 and 这工作.

My first question is are these constructions correct Chinese? Or perhaps colloquially acceptable but not technically correct?

The second question is would one use this structure in any scenario, or just certain cases (I seem to have only encountered it when dealing with abstract multi-character nouns)?

[Demonic_Duck]

Correct Chinese, but colloquial.

No restrictions on abstract/concrete, but most commonly used with multi-character words. Almost always used with nouns that are the subject of the sentence, typically only when the "这" is not particularly important to the meaning (so not e.g. when used in contrast with "那").

[Apollys]

Wow, those are some precise observations. Thanks

[Demonic_Duck]

I should probably mention that they're just based on my own observations, not statistical linguistic analysis.

[Apollys]

Yes, of course I understood that. Thank you good sir!

[Daniel Tsui44]

 

On 2017/1/3 at 9:04 AM, Apollys said:

My first question is are these constructions correct Chinese? Or perhaps colloquially acceptable but not technically correct?

The second question is would one use this structure in any scenario, or just certain cases (I seem to have only encountered it when dealing with abstract multi-character nouns)?

 

 

It's correct construction. You can use it for any noun.

这人很聪明。He is very smart. can also mean "The human being is very smart."

这个人很聪明。This person is very smart.

Measure words is used only to clarify the quantity. 

"这苹果很甜" is technically different with "这个苹果很甜".

"这苹果" can mean a sepecific apple or a pile of aplle.

"这个苹果" is a sepecific apple.

when the quantity you memtioned is more than one, it's colloquially acceptable but not technically correct to omit the measure word.

"这三个苹果很甜". It's not OK to write as "这三苹果很甜" but acceptable in speaking.

[lips]

 ......

not technically correct to omit the measure word.

It's done a lot in writing.

[Daniel Tsui44]

Is there any example?

[lips]

两车相撞

一石二鸟

梅西进了三球

二人同行

 

[roddy]

Easily found on Amazon.cn

[Daniel Tsui44]

yeah, that's classical Chinese style, measure word is usually omited. Classical Chinese don't use measure word much. Except 一石二鸟,  other three need to add measure word to make it more official as mordern Chinese.