Pragmatics of classifier use in Chinese discourse

The present study examines a particular syntactic phenomenon in Chinese discourse, namely complex noun phrases (CNPs), and investigates the occurrence and distribution of the various forms of such constructions. The study focuses on the presence and absence of classifier phrases that modify CNPs, and explores, from a cognitive-functional perspective, what specific functions such modifiers in CNPs serve in discourse and how their positioning in CNPs manifests our cognitive constraints underlying discourse processing. The study aims to explain (i) why, of several possible CNP constructions, one occurs more frequently in discourse than do others, and (ii) what motivates speakers and writers to choose a particular type of CNP at a certain juncture of discourse processing