Split or unified: revisit the structure(s) and reading(s) of Mandarin Chinese classifier phrases

Mandarin Chinese is a classifier language. Li (2011) proposes two equally accessible readings — counting and measure — for container classifier phrases, which I term the Split Hypothesis (see also Rothstein, 2017). However, I present novel data that challenges this syntactically originated distinction and the validity of a counting reading for container classifiers. I then extend Brody & Feiman’s (2024) proposal of polysemy to capture the interpretation nuances of classifier phrases, and argue instead for a unified reading, wherein other inferences are contextually modulated.