Expectation-based Processing: Chinese classifiers

General idea - Definite or enumerated Chinese NPs are preceded by classifiers that depend on the semantic class of the intended meaning of the noun. For example, the Chinese word for "telephone" (dian4hua4) can either refer to an individual phone, a type of phone, or a phoning event (ie a phone call), depending on what type of classifier is paired with the noun. Whether an NP evokes an individual, kind, or event seems grammaticized in the Chinese classifier system. (See work by Ahrens FMI.)

Crucially, there also seem to be cases where producers have a choice between two classifiers for the same noun without causing much meaning difference (eg the WEI/GE option for people Ns). In cases like this, one of the possible classifiers is more restrictive (WEI teacher) than the other (GE teacher), in the sense that the latter is a more GENERAL classifier, while the former can be paired only with a more limited set of nouns (people, in this case). Since the classifiers precede the noun, we hypothesize that comprehenders can integrate the information provided by classifiers during incremental comprehension to hone in on the noun they expect. This should lead to increased processing speed for specific classifiers (WEI) compared to general classifiers (GE) when comprehenders reach the noun.

For more detail continue to the [wiki:/LabLog lab log]

ProjectsChineseClassifiers (last edited 2009-05-14 19:27:29 by colossus)

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