<p>Does anyone know of literary uses of classifiers being used for objects that they wouldn't normally be used for? Like perhaps you could use 条 for people to dehumanize them (as though they were fish) or to emphasize that they are tall and lanky?</p>

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2022-12-28T12:33:16.267Z
Funny you should choose 条 because under certain context, 条 actually has a positive connotation because there is an Idiom "二十年后又是一条好汉" -- meaning a hero will be praised even 20 years after his heroic death. So, even though 条 normally is a classifier for either inanimate objects or animals, the Chinese sees it as also imbuing a person, (should be a male only), with hard, strong qualities thereof. Good question though.
Wayne Cheah
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2022-12-28T16:51:52.727Z
Interesting! But then it seems like 条 is a MW for 好汉, not for 人. Might you say 三条人？
Buddy L
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2022-12-28T17:41:57.973Z
[尊] for [人] is another fun one, if you like cracking understandable jokes.
Mou某
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2022-12-29T01:52:24.397Z
好汉 is actually an everyday common compound used by native speakers as another way to refer to a person, (male), who has certain positive characteristics, See -- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A5%BD%E6%B1%89 So, 条 still refers to a type of person nonetheless.  But saying 三条人 has neither syntactic nor, as you put it, "poetic / literary" value and, as you know, grammatically wrong as well. The point is the word 人 itself need not specifically be used to mean a person. My comment is to show the irony of the classifier 条 which does not actually "dehumanize" the person but rather the opposite.
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-29T02:00:48.867Z
Further, 好汉, is like in English referring to a person as "guy", "bloke", "fellow", "machoman", "sissy", "gay", etc.; but we all know it means a person with certain characteristics, positive or negative.
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-29T08:12:39.830Z
是一条汉子 makes sense, I believe 条 is exclusive for X汉
Lily White
<measure-word>
Can classifiers be used poetically?
# Can classifiers be used poetically?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-12-28)

Does anyone know of literary uses of classifiers being used for objects that they wouldn't normally be used for? Like perhaps you could use 条 for people to dehumanize them (as though they were fish) or to emphasize that they are tall and lanky?

**Tags:** measure-word

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Funny you should choose 条 because under certain context, 条 actually has a positive connotation because there is an Idiom "二十年后又是一条好汉" -- meaning a hero will be praised even 20 years after his heroic death. So, even though 条 normally is a classifier for either inanimate objects or animals, the Chinese sees it as also imbuing a person, (should be a male only), with hard, strong qualities thereof. Good question though.  
> **username_0**: Interesting! But then it seems like 条 is a MW for 好汉, not for 人. Might you say 三条人？  
> **username_2**: [尊] for [人] is another fun one, if you like cracking understandable jokes.  
> **username_1**: 好汉 is actually an everyday common compound used by native speakers as another way to refer to a person, (male), who has certain positive characteristics, See -- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A5%BD%E6%B1%89 So, 条 still refers to a type of person nonetheless.  But saying 三条人 has neither syntactic nor, as you put it, "poetic / literary" value and, as you know, grammatically wrong as well. The point is the word 人 itself need not specifically be used to mean a person. My comment is to show the irony of the classifier 条 which does not actually "dehumanize" the person but rather the opposite.  
> **username_1**: Further, 好汉, is like in English referring to a person as "guy", "bloke", "fellow", "machoman", "sissy", "gay", etc.; but we all know it means a person with certain characteristics, positive or negative.  
> **username_3**: 是一条汉子 makes sense, I believe 条 is exclusive for X汉  

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## 0 answers

