Unclear use of 起

[Rene Nyffenegge]

Hi everybody

I came across the following sentence:

美国联邦调查局发言人保尔·布里森说，联邦调查局正在调查这起事件。

(found at http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-01/23/content_4088523.htm)

and the usage of 起 is unclear to me. What is its purpose in the sentence?

TIA, Rene

[feihu989]

ther are some differences between English and Chinese . For example , in English when we say an apple , a pen, and in Chinese we say “一(an) 个 苹果(apple)”, there should be a word ‘个’ between ‘an’and ‘apple’. In the same way , when we say ," this apple is mine（这个苹果是我的）", there is a word ‘个’between '这(this)' and '苹果(apple)'. we can see some other phases like it , 这支铅笔(this pencile) , 那条裤子(that pants). And in the phrase "这起事件（this incident）", '起' is just like the word ‘个’and '条', it couldn't be translated into English directly , but it do uses in Chinese , as achronic usage.

hope it helps

[jbiesnecker]

起 here is a measure word. Wenlin says it's a measure word for "case; batch; group," and it's often seen as a measure word for criminal cases.

[Rene Nyffenegge]

Oh my, I should have known that myself.... Well, anyway, thanks for clearing that up.

Cheers, Rene