A Cohort Effect In The Online Processing Of The Classifier-Noun Aegreement In Chinese:An Eye-Tracking Study On CFL Learners

The cohort effect has been proved within and across languages during spoken word recognition.The current study investigates whether a similar cohort effect would be generalized to the processing of the Classifier-Noun agreement in Chinese on CFL learners.We use the eye-tracking visual world paradigm to see if multiple lexical candidates which are consistent with the classifier have been activated during early recognition,and whether language proficiency in Chinese and frequency of the Classifier would have any influence on the processing.Though the experiment,we found that CFL learners do show a trend of cohort effect when processing the Classifier-Noun agreement in Chinese:eye fixations are focused on multiple candidate nouns when subjects are presented with Classifier sound information only.Language proficiency and frequency of Classifiers are factors that would influence this processing trend:subjects with higher language proficiency and more frequently used Classifiers are easier to show this processing trend.Our study generated the cohort theory to Chinese on a phrase-processing level and successfully observed the processing trend of CFL learners with the help of eye-tracking techniques.