Christa Posted January 29, 2018 at 02:44 PM Report Posted January 29, 2018 at 02:44 PM I've really enjoyed the recent discussions we've had regarding the measure words that can be used for phone and computer. Anyway, it made me wonder about 部 and 臺/台 when used to talk about machines. What would make you choose one rather than another? And what do each of these terms actually mean? What's the origin of each character? What is its essence? With 臺/台 I sort of feel like it means something like "big surface area"? Does anyone agree / disagree with that? And with 部 I kind of feel like it means something like "part". Would you say that's an accurate, base meaning of the word? I find this really quite interesting and would love to hear any opinions you each have : ) Christina Quote
imron Posted January 29, 2018 at 03:31 PM Report Posted January 29, 2018 at 03:31 PM 31 minutes ago, Christa said: And what do each of these terms actually mean? From the Guifan dictionary in Pleco (ignoring the non measure word definitions) 台 （量） 用于机器设备等 部 （量） a 用于书籍、影片等 b 用于机器或车辆 So either can be used to describe a device or machine of some sort, but 部 also has other applications too. I'll leave it to a native speaker to describe the difference in nuance between the two when describing a device. 1 Quote
Christa Posted January 29, 2018 at 09:32 PM Author Report Posted January 29, 2018 at 09:32 PM 6 hours ago, imron said: 台 （量） 用于机器设备等 部 （量） a 用于书籍、影片等 b 用于机器或车辆 It's funny that the latter is said to be for vehicles but I hear the former more frequently used with "car". Quote
imron Posted January 30, 2018 at 02:40 AM Report Posted January 30, 2018 at 02:40 AM See here for usage examples. 1 Quote
Christa Posted January 30, 2018 at 04:42 PM Author Report Posted January 30, 2018 at 04:42 PM 14 hours ago, imron said: See here for usage examples. Interesting. Seems there is generally a preference for 部 with phones and 臺/台 with cameras. I wonder what the logic is there, to make one more popular in one case but not the other. The size of the devices is so similar. Quote
imron Posted January 30, 2018 at 05:30 PM Report Posted January 30, 2018 at 05:30 PM I don't think search results are sufficient to make such a comparison about language usage because the results will be influenced by the search rankings of the websites in question. It's useful to get a rough idea of what can be used, but I wouldn't draw any conclusions about usage preferences for one over the other. 1 Quote
Publius Posted January 30, 2018 at 05:39 PM Report Posted January 30, 2018 at 05:39 PM Similar size... you mean this and this ? In fact, size doesn't matter according to the prototype theory of classifiers. An often cited example is 一顆原子彈. 2 Quote
Christa Posted January 30, 2018 at 10:32 PM Author Report Posted January 30, 2018 at 10:32 PM 5 hours ago, imron said: I don't think search results are sufficient to make such a comparison about language usage because the results will be influenced by the search rankings of the websites in question. True. And of course it also gives preference to the written rather than spoken language. 4 hours ago, Publius said: Similar size... you mean this and this ? Exactly! Quote
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