Editing Chinese classifier (section)

===Specialized uses===
[[File:Trafficjamdelhi.jpg|right|thumb|The phrase {{fs interlinear|lang=zh|indent=1|车 {{uline|辆}}|chē {{uline|liàng}}|car {{uline|CL}}|}} has the classifier after the noun. It could refer, for example, to "the cars on the road".|alt=A traffic jam]]

In addition to their uses with numbers and demonstratives, classifiers have some other functions. A classifier placed after a noun expresses a plural or indefinite quantity of it. For example:

{{fs interlinear|lang=zh|indent=2|书 {{uline|本}}|shū {{uline|běn}}|book {{uline|CL}}|'the books' (e.g. on a shelf, or in a library)}}

whereas the standard pre-nominal construction
{{fs interlinear|lang=zh|indent=2|一 {{uline|本}} 书|yī {{uline|běn}} shū|one {{uline|CL}} book|'one book'<ref name=LiThomp82>{{Harvnb|Li|Thompson|1981|p=82}}</ref>}}

Many classifiers may be [[reduplicated]] to mean 'every'. For example:

{{fs interlinear|lang=zh|indent=2|{{uline|个}} {{uline|个}} 人
|{{uline|gè}} {{uline|ge}} rén
|{{uline|CL}} {{uline|CL}} person
|'every person'<ref group="note">Although {{zhi|c=每{{uline|每}}个人}} is more generally used to mean 'every person' in this case.</ref><ref name=LiThomp34-5>{{Harvnb|Li|Thompson|1981|pp=34–35}}</ref>
}}

A classifier used along with 一 ({{Transliteration|zh|yī}} 'one') and after a noun conveys a meaning close to 'all of' or 'the entire' or 'a ___full of'.<ref name=LiThomp111>{{Harvnb|Li|Thompson|1981|p=111}}</ref> This sentence uses the classifier {{lang|zh|片}}&nbsp;({{Transliteration|zh|piàn}} 'slice'), which refers to the sky, not the clouds.<ref group=note>See, for example, similar results in the Chinese corpus of the Center for Chinese Linguistics at [[Peking University]]: [http://ccl.pku.edu.cn:8080/ccl_corpus/search?dir=xiandai&q=%E5%A4%A9%E7%A9%BA%E4%B8%80%E7%89%87&neighborSortLength=0&maxLeftLength=30&maxRightLength=30&start=0&num=50&index=FullIndex&outputFormat=HTML&orderStyle=score&encoding=UTF-8 天空一片], retrieved on 3 June 2009.</ref>

{{fs interlinear|lang=zh|indent=2
|天空 一 {{uline|片}} 云
|tiānkōng yī {{uline|piàn}} yún
|sky one {{uline|CL}} cloud
|"the sky was full of clouds"}}

Classifiers may also indicate possession. For example, the Standard Chinese equivalent of 'my book' would often be {{lang|zh|我的书}}&nbsp;({{Transliteration|zh|wǒ de shū}}), but in Cantonese this would typically be expressed as

{{fs interlinear|lang=yue|indent=2
|我 {{uline|本}} 书
|ngo4 bun2 syu1
|me CL.POSS book
|"my book"}}

with the classifier serving as a possessive marker roughly equivalent to English ''s''.