An ERP Study On The Countability Of Chinese Nouns

Countability,which reflects human’s cognition of things and quantity,is the characteristics of quantitive expression of nouns.In the study of countability of nouns in Chinese,whether Chinese nouns can be divided into count nouns and mass nouns according to semantic standard and the relationship between classifiers and countability of nouns in processing are the issues that scholars pay close attention to.This study explores these two issues through experiments.In Experiment 1,based on the prototype categorization theory of cognitive linguistics,Chinese nouns were divided into count nouns and mass nouns.Non-quantitative phrases and quantifiable phrases were used to match nouns,respectively.The results showed that under the condition of non-quantitative phrase modification,there were different processing representations between Chinese count nouns and mass nouns in classifying processing.Mass nouns were easier to be recognized in the early processing,and more difficult to be integrated in the late semantic processing.In Experiment 2,,individual classifiers and non-individual classifiers were collocated with count / mass nouns respectively to form different "number-classifier-noun" phrases to explore the influence of different classifiers on the countability of nouns.The results showed that there were significant differences in types of classifiers between early semantic processing and late syntactic processing.In the late semantic processing,there were significant differences in types of nouns,and there were also significant differences in the processing of "individual classifiers+count nouns" and "non-individual classifiers+count nouns".After analysis and discussion,the paper draws the following conclusions.(1)In the case of non-quantitative expression,Chinese count / mass nouns can be divided according to the semantic standard.(2)Classifiers affect the countability of nouns through syntactic combination,which involves both semantic and syntactic factors.The countability processing of "number-classifier-noun" phrases is not completely dominated by classifiers,and the semantics of countability of nouns also plays a role in the processing.(3)It is not reasonable to identify classifiers as the syntactic distinguishing standard of countability of nouns,because classifiers do not realize the categorization of "number" in syntax.(4)In the processing of countability of nouns in different languages,semantic and syntactic factors play different roles.In Chinese,semantic factors play a dominant role.In morphological languages,morphological and syntactic factors play a more important role.