Some measure words can be pronounced in more than one way but others are only supposed to be pronounced a single way.
Take the most common one 'ge.' Ge can be pronounced ge0, ge1, or ge4 in general. Northern Mandarin can impart a neutral tone to the syllable and Southern Mandarin often does not allow the neutral.
There are over 150 measure words in Mandarin; half are commonly used. Is there a dataset somewhere that describes all of the observed, possible, and preferred standard variations [datasets in Chinese language are ok too]?
Hi Jim,
I don't know if this will be a good dataset, but I have a small book called Hanyu Liangci Cidian, published by Heian Guoji Chubanshe, 1989, First American Edition.
Heian International , Inc.
P.O. Box 1013
Union City, CA 94587
This address is from 1988, not sure the company is still there.
It's a nice little book, with something like 212 measure words or classifiers. Each one is shown with its major usages. (Bilingual: English and Simplified Chinese). I find it very useful.
Martha
Ha. Recursion raises its evil head again. (or is it tail recursion?)
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