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Reviewed by:
  • Vietnamese classifiers in narrative texts by Karen Ann Daley
  • Graham Thurgood
Vietnamese classifiers in narrative texts. By Karen Ann Daley. (Publication 125.) Arlington, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics & The University of Texas at Arlington, 1998. Pp. xii, 209.

Daley’s work is a valuable contribution to the small but one hopes growing tradition of studying the use of classifiers in narrative texts (Alton Becker, Pamela Downing, Paul Hopper, Elizabeth Riddle). Working with four Vietnamese narratives and using Talmy Givón’s measures of topic continuity and topic persistence, D argues that in her texts the primary function of classifiers is to register referential salience (after Riddle), that is, a classifier is used to highlight the salience of a referent. Other uses are seen as subordinate to the central salience-marking use. Thus, in a narrative the two most salient points are initial mentions, in which the classifier co-occurs with the numeral ‘one’ and in discontinuous reference in which an important referent is being reinstated. Another major use is as noun substitutes, that is, pronominal reference. Other apparent uses, D points out, are more apparent than real. One of D’s most obvious findings is that, while classifiers of course do occur with numbers, not only do numbers occur more often than not without classifiers, but classifiers also occur more often than not without numbers. Similarly, while classifiers occur with definite NPs, they also occur with great frequency with indefinite NPs (e.g., initial mentions). All this D documents with what at first one thinks of as countless examples, though quite soon one realizes that D has counted them, tallied them, and arranged them into interesting tables. The primary database is there, too, presented in the form of Appendix B, consisting of four Vietnamese texts, presented with carefully done interlinear texts, allowing ambitious readers the opportunity to examine the data for themselves, should they be so inclined.

The work itself is carefully done, detailed almost to the point of tediousness, something that is more a virtue than a fault when working with the functioning of classifiers in discourse. In fact, the detail is necessary: Given that marking discourse salience is a primary function of classifiers in Vietnamese, it follows that judgments about salience depend in part on the online judgments of individual storytellers. Only through careful and rich examination of whole narratives will such factors become apparent. D’s short little book is a welcome addition to the literature on classifiers.

Graham Thurgood
California State University, Chico
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