In Mandarin Chinese, classifiers are often inserted between numbers and nouns. Numbers, classifiers and nouns are combined together to form the Num+CL+N construction. As a special functional item, classifiers have attracted much attention in modern linguistics. The study of classifiers not only provides evidences for the exploration of Sino-Tibetan languages, but also contributes to find out the cognitive categorization process of speakers of classifier languages. The current study discusses the grammaticalization of Chinese classifiers from the development of the structure and semantics of classifier phrases. The selectional co-occurrence of Chinese classifiers and nouns are also investigated from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.
