Processing Mandarin Chinese Classifiers as a Lexico-Syntactic Feature During Noun Phrase Production

Abstract

During speech production, lexico-syntactic features associated with nouns (e.g., grammatical gender, classifiers, number) are assumed to be automatically activated. Although previous studies have provided evidence for this assumption by examining classifier congruency effects, empirical validation of this mechanism in Mandarin Chinese remains limited. The present study investigated whether a classifier congruency effect can be reliably elicited during noun phrase production in Mandarin and explored how this effect relates to semantic processing. We employed a picture-word interference (PWI) paradigm, incorporating several methodological refinements. Both classifier congruency and semantic relatedness between the target and distractor words were manipulated. Behavioural results replicated the semantic interference effect, with longer naming latencies observed for semantically related distractors than semantically unrelated ones. Although no main effect of classifier congruency was found, a significant interaction with semantic relatedness emerged. Classifier incongruency led to delayed naming under semantically related conditions. ERP results further revealed that both the semantic interference and classifier congruency effects peaked within the N400 time window, with the semantic interference effect emerging slightly earlier. These findings provide further evidence that classifier information is automatically activated as a lexico-syntactic feature during lemma access, and that this activation is influenced by semantic processing. The present results contribute both conceptually and methodologically to advancing our understanding of classifier processing in Mandarin Chinese.

Keywords: picture naming, picture-word interference, lexico-syntactic feature, classifier