Good dictionary for checking measure words

[Tomsima]

I'm looking for a good dictionary (preferably one that is online and searchable, but physical book recommendations also welcome) for checking measure words for nouns. I just bumped into 一只贝壳 and it felt a bit off to me. I checked the relevant hits on baidu for 只 versus 颗, and found that 只 is indeed more popular. But then I also found some dictionaries listing 一块贝壳，一个贝壳，一枚贝壳.

 

Surely there must be a definitive resource for what the standard measure word should be for most common nouns?

[Weyland]

There are less than 200 measure words. Wouldn't it make more sense to learn all of those instead? Especially as often measure words are used as a figure of speech.

Like “一把眼泪, 一把鼻涕."

You'll never see "把" as a measure word under an entry of either 眼泪 or 鼻涕.

[Tomsima]

reconsideringt, yes it wouldn't make sense to define a standard, especially as a change in a measure word changes the feeling and meaning of the phrase. still, a good 辭典 that lists different measure words in popular usage (esp in colloquialisms) for specific words would be a great reference

[Shelley]

There is this for starters http://wrmbilingual201213.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/9/2/16929452/list_of_measure_words.pdf

 

This is a result of quick google search there are many more resources out there.

 

This pops up a lot the Cheng & Tsui Chinese Measure Word Dictionary.

 

[Tomsima]

Thanks Shelley, yeah I've seen all these, I was looking more for a 辞海-sized comprehensive resource

[Weyland]

Oh lol, I do have something like that. Routledge has published a "comprehensive" Chinese grammar. But, I don't like recommending anything by said publisher.

Removed until I'm shown linked book is in the public domain. Roddy

Weyland: Nahh, you're right. I thought the rules applied to language based publishers which weren't as unscrupulous in their intellectual dishonesty as Routledge is. Where anything not Western is branded with the label of backwardness, corruption and eventual downturn all while bolstering up their claims with what account to intellectual circle-jerking. I find it kind of unsettling how they call themselves the go-to publisher for aspiring diplomats. I'd rather (hypothetically)buy-out this forum than to recommend any of Routledge's "academic" literature to its users.

 

Chapter 2.8 covers measure words.

Edited December 21, 2019 at 06:22 PM by Weyland
Routledge's content is rife with conflict provoking intellectual dishonesty/western proclivity.

[roddy]

That kind of language makes you sound like you've got a chip on your shoulder rather than any legitimate complaints. 

[Weyland]

21 minutes ago, roddy said:

That kind of language makes you sound like you've got a chip on your shoulder rather than any legitimate complaints. 

Comments on the Grammar book; Pinyin is full of mistakes, they switch between simple and traditional in example sentences, the index is incomplete and seems to point to the pages as they were in a previous version it's not 1:1, Chinese multicharacter words are cut in half and start on the next page, example sentences vary so much in difficulty that i's almost laughable, 

it little start off with talking about change in intonation for 一 and 不, but then forget all about it later on when they actually write the pinyin, just to name a few.

Then books like their Handbook on the Chinese Communist Party uses to topic to talk about the many affairs of Chinese officials and never even talks about how it's organized, or what the administrative divisions are and what they do. 

Their handbook on the Chinese media talks solely about propaganda, and not actually about how topics like, just spit-balling here, suicide or homosexuality are covered and what the rules/institutions are. 

The handbook on Chinese domestic policies only talks about how people are suppressed and not why certain industries are not allowed in certain cities, or even how cities are organized in ranks and what they mean. 

So, nahh. I do have legitimate complains. When I purchased their books I expected an actual portrayal of the administration as you'd expect if you were reading about US class on State Law, or Government. And not this intellectual dishonesty that only gives ammunition for anti-Chinese pundits, all of which sourced from non-Chinese sources (often the same author iterating on and quoting their previous work.

[Weyland]

Again, don't buy it.

Here is a flashcard list of most relevant measure words.

The location orientated and metaphor orientated measure words are less limited in scope that these flashcards might cause you to believe.

Chinese Measure Words.txt

[Tomsima]

thanks for uploading, but im looking for a resource where you move in the other direction. the goal is to find a dictionary where you can look up rare and/or abstract nouns and the dictionary will tell what the correct measure words should be when it is not clear

[Shelley]

Pleco gives the classifier/measure word for its entries, with the Outlier addon it might be possible that this will meet your needs. I tried it with a simple noun to check and yes it gives the measure word. Not sure about how rare it goes, but maybe worth a look?