Empirical investigations into the language-specific effects of the classifier system on Chinese-English bilingual speakers’ object categorisation

Chen, Jing and Casaponsa, Aina (2025) Empirical investigations into the language-specific effects of the classifier system on Chinese-English bilingual speakers’ object categorisation. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

In Mandarin Chinese, the classifier system serves as an inherent linguistic device for grouping objects into categories based on various conceptual features. According to the linguistic relativity hypothesis proposed by Whorf (1956), the way people from different language backgrounds categorise the experienced world may vary enormously in accordance with the language(s) they have acquired and spoken. In this thesis, I aim to explore whether and how the habitual use of the classifier system alters the mental representations of Chinese native speakers. Moreover, it is interesting to ask whether and to what extent learning a nonclassifier language (i.e., English) as an L2 leads to conceptual changes in the minds of Chinese-English bilingual speakers, and which factor(s) may affect the restructuring process if any occur. To address these questions, a series of behavioural tasks using non-linguistic stimuli were designed and conducted to compare the cognitive performances of English monolingual speakers with those of Chinese-English bilingual speakers. Results from the semantic relatedness rating task (i.e., Experiment One) revealed the classifier congruency effect under the semantic unrelated condition only when pictorial stimuli were displayed sequentially (Experiment 1B) rather than simultaneously (Experiment 1A). The finding suggested that language may indeed intrude our thinking processes and modulate memory-based cognitive behaviour, as language-specific information about classifier membership was activated and recruited by Chinese-speaking participants only when they were required to complete a cognitive task involving temporary memorisation. Moreover, learning a non-classifier language such as English was demonstrated to affect the conceptual representations of Chinese-English bilingual speakers. The longer they were immersed in an English-speaking environment, the weaker the classifier effect became. In addition to the behavioural differences from a task involving higher-level cognitive processes, results from the semantic relatedness judgement task (i.e., Experiment Two) provided further evidence for spontaneous and unconscious access to classifier membership information exclusively among Chinese-speaking participants when they were functioning in a context requiring no explicit use of such linguistic information. Furthermore, the conceptual representations of Chinese-English bilinguals seemed to be modulated by the length of immersion in an L2-speaking environment as well. However, contrary to what was found in Experiment One, the longer bilingual speakers were immersed in an English-speaking country, the stronger the classifier effect became. In Experiment Three, the semantic relatedness judgement task was combined with the verbal interference paradigm to further examine the role of active language in the cognitive process of time-pressured judgements. Results from Experiments Two and Three need to be interpreted in a broader context, revealing that the classifier effect obtained under the no interference condition (as in Experiment Two) was attenuated but not completely eliminated, no matter when Chinese-English bilinguals were subjected to verbal interference in their L1 or L2. The findings lent support to the non-selective lexical access hypothesis by indicating that the conceptual representations of both languages were integrated in the minds of Chinese-English bilinguals and could be activated and accessed in a non-selective manner. Taken together, the present study adds to the growing body of research on languagespecific influences on object categorisation. To be specific, the categories defined by the classifier system in Chinese are meaningful and can affect how Chinese speakers classify everyday objects even after they have acquired a non-classifier language, such as English. Furthermore, the findings provide new insights into the nature and scope of the classifier effect, and under what circumstances it arises.