On yi ‘one item', lia ‘two items', and sa ‘three items'

Ekaterina Chirkova (1)

1 CRLAO - Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l'Asie Orientale

In this article, I examine the expression yi ‘one item', as com-pared to the expressions lia ‘two items', and sa ‘three items' in Peking Mandarin. I discuss the character transcriptions of these expressions, give an overview of their previous treatments, and compare the current usage of yi with that of lia and sa. Based on the differences between these expressions, I conclude that while lia and sa are words (viz. independent carriers of the meanings ‘two items' and ‘three items'), the meaning ‘one item' is represented in Peking Mandarin both by the expression yi ‘one item' and by the expression yige ‘an item'.

Mots clés: Beijing Mandarin; numeral one; semantics

Domaines: Linguistique

Ekaterina Chirkova. On yi ‘one item', lia ‘two items', and sa ‘three items'. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, 2004, 39 (2), pp.19-34. ⟨halshs-00104154⟩