Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-hgkh8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T18:51:46.404Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A study of Swedish speakers' learning of Chinese noun classifiers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2010

Helena H. Gao*
Affiliation:
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, HSS-03-05, 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore637332. helenagao@ntu.edu.sg
Get access

Abstract

Chinese noun classifiers are an obligatory category associated with nouns. Studies have shown that achieving a full understanding and good mastery of Chinese noun classifiers is difficult for both young and adult L2 learners. This study examines the learning strategies used by 30 Swedish adults for a period of two months. Their learning results are compared to 30 bilingual children's production of Chinese noun classifiers. The adult learners exhibit a normal top–down learning fashion, in which they fail to acquire the complex semantic and cognitive meanings embedded in the classifiers. The children, on the other hand, apply cognitive strategies with a bottom–up approach. The adults’ learning of classifiers lags surprisingly far behind their general level of Chinese proficiency. This study can be used as a reference for future studies on the conceptual and cognitive aspects of Chinese language acquisition by speakers whose native languages are not classifier languages.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Nordic Association of Linguistics 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Berenthal, Bennett I. 1996. Origins and early development of perception, action, and representation. Annual Review of Psychology 47, 431459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bley-Vroman, Robert. 1989. What is the logical problem of foreign language learning? In Gass, Susan M. & Schachter, Jacquelyn (eds.), Linguistic Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition, 4168. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bowerman, Melissa. 1996. The origin of children's semantic spatial categories: Cognitive versus linguistic determinants. In Gumperz & Levinson (eds.), 145–176.Google Scholar
Bowerman, Melissa & Choi, Soonja. 2003. Space under construction: Language-specific spatial categorization in first language acquisition. In Gentner, Dedre & Goldin-Meadow, Susan (eds.), Language in Mind, 387427. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Chien, Yu-Chin, Lust, Barbara & Chiang, Chi-Pang. 2003. Chinese children's comprehension of count-classifiers and mass-classifiers. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 12 (2), 91120.Google Scholar
Clahsen, Harald & Felser, Claudia. 2006. How native-like is non-native language processing? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 10 (12), 564570.Google Scholar
Clark, Eve. V. 1973. What's in a word? On the child's acquisition of semantics in his first language. In Moore, Timothy E. (ed.), Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language, 65110. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Eve. V. 2004. How language acquisition builds on cognitive development. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8, 472478.Google Scholar
Craig, Colette. 1986. Jacaltec noun classifiers: A study in language and culture. In Craig (ed.), 263–294.Google Scholar
Craig, Colette. 1986a. Noun Classes and Categorization. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
DeLoache, Judy S., Strauss, Mark S. & Maynard, Jane. 1979. Picture perception in infancy. Infant Behavior and Development 2 (1), 7789.Google Scholar
Doughty, Catherine J. & Long, Michael (eds.). 2005. Handbook of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dulay, Heidi C. & Burt, Marina K.. 1974. Errors and strategies in child second language acquisition. TESOL Quarterly 8 (2), 129136.Google Scholar
Erbaugh, Mary S. 1986. Taking stock: The development of Chinese noun classifiers historically and in young children. In Craig (ed.), 399–436.Google Scholar
Erbaugh, Mary S. 1992. The acquisition of Mandarin. In Slobin, Dan I. (ed.), The Cross-linguistic Study of Language Acquisition 3, 373455. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Fathman, Ann. 1975. The relationship between age and second language productive ability. Language Learning 25, 245–53.Google Scholar
Gao, Helena H. & Zelazo, Philip David. 2008. Language and development of consciousness: Degrees of disembodiment. In Overton, Willis F., Müller, Ulrich & Newman, Judith L. (eds.), Developmental Perspectives on Embodiment and Consciousness, 225246. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erbaum.Google Scholar
Gao, Hong. 2001. When the ‘learned system’ is activated. Working Papers 48, 4154. Lund: Lund University Press.Google Scholar
Gao, Ming Y. & Malt, Barbara C.. 2009. Mental representation and cognitive consequences of Chinese individual classifiers. Language and Cognitive Processes 24 (7–8), 11241179.Google Scholar
Gershkoff-Stowe, Lisa & Smith, Linda B.. 2004. Shape and the first hundred nouns. Child Development 75 (4), 10981114.Google Scholar
Gregg, Kevin R. 1984. Krashen's monitor and Occam's razor. Applied Linguistics 5, 79100.Google Scholar
Gumperz, John J. & Levinson, Stephen L. (eds.). 1996. Rethinking Linguistic Relativity (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language 17). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hong, Yifang. 《 敦 煌 社 会 经 济 文 书 中 之 词 研 究 》 [ A study of the classifiers found in the Dunhuang documents on society and economy]. Taipei: Wen-chin Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Hu, Qian. 1993. The Acquisition of Chinese Classifiers by Young Mandarin-speaking Children. Ph.D. dissertation, Boston University.Google Scholar
Huang, Chu-ren & Ahrens, Katherine. 2003. Individuals, kinds and events: Classifier coercion of nouns. Language Sciences 25, 353373.Google Scholar
Hyltenstam, Kenneth. 2009. Barn och vuxna möter nya språk. In Cronqvist, Marie (ed.), Samtal i rörelse. Elva essäer om mänskliga möten och språkets kraft (Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfonds årsbok 2009), 4362. Göteborg & Stockholm: Makadam bokförlag.Google Scholar
Krashen, Stephen D. 1987. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. New York: Prentice-Hall International.Google Scholar
Krashen, Stephen D. 1988. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. New York: Prentice-Hall International.Google Scholar
Krashen, Stephen D. 2003. Explorations in Language Acquisition and Use. Portsmouth: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Kuo, Jenny Yi-chun & Sera, Maria D.. 2009. Classifier effects on human categorization: The role of shape classifiers in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 18, 119.Google Scholar
Lee, Penny. 1996. The Whorf Theory Complex: A Critical Reconstruction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Liu, Lisa G. 1985. Reasoning counterfactually in Chinese: Are there any obstacles? Cognition 21, 239270.Google Scholar
Makino, Taka-yoshi. 1980. Acquisition Order of English Morphemes by Japanese Adolescents. Tokyo: Shinozaki Shorin Press.Google Scholar
Putnam, Hilary. 1975. The meaning of ‘meaning’. In Gunderson, Keith (ed.), Language, Mind and Knowledge, 131193. Minneapolis, IN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Ritchie, William C. & Bhatia, Tej K. (eds.). 2009. The New Handbook of Second Language Acquisition. Leeds: Emerald Press.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Bonnie D. 1986. The epistemological status of second language acquisition. Second Language Research 2 (2), 120159.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Bonnie D. 1993. On explicit and negative data effecting and affecting competence and linguistic behavior. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 15, 147163.Google Scholar
Slobin, Dan I. 1996. From ‘thought and language’ to ‘thinking for speaking’. In Gumperz & Levinson (eds.), 70–96.Google Scholar
Smith, Linda B. 2009. From fragments to geometric shape: Changes in visual object recognition between 18 and 24 months. Current Directions in Psychological Science 18 (5), 290294.Google Scholar
Tai, James H-Y. 1994. Chinese classifier systems and human categorization. In Ho, Dah-an & Tzeng, Ovid J. L. (eds.), In Honor of Professor William S-Y. Wang: Interdisciplinary Studies on Language and Language Change, 479494. Taipei: Pyramid Press.Google Scholar
Truscott, John. 1996. The case against grammar correction in L2 writing classes. Language Learning 46 (2), 327369.Google Scholar
Truscott, John. 1998. Noticing in second language acquisition: A critical review. Second Language Research 14, 103135.Google Scholar
Uchida, Nobuko & Imai, Mutsumi. 1999. Heuristics in learning classifiers: The acquisition of the classifier system and its implications for the nature of lexical acquisition. Japanese Psychological Research 41 (1), 5069.Google Scholar
Unsworth, Sharon. 2008. Comparing child L2 development with adult L2 development: How to measure L2 proficiency. In Haznedar, Belma & Gavruseva, Elena (eds.), Current Trends in Child Second Language Acquisition: A Generative Perspective, 301336. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Wei, Li & Lee, Sherman. 2001. L1 development in an L2 environment: The use of Cantonese classifiers and quantifiers by young British-born Chinese in Tyneside. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 4 (6), 359382.Google Scholar
White, Lydia, 2003. Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Whorf, Benjamin Lee. 1956. Grammatical categories. In Carool, John B. (ed.), Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf, 87111. Cambridge, MA: Joint Publication of the Technology Press of MIT and John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Yoshida, Hanako & Smith, Linda B.. 2005. Linguistic cues enhance the learning of perceptual cues. Psychological Science 16 (2), 9095.Google Scholar
Zelazo, Philip David. 2004. The development of conscious control in childhood. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8, 1217.Google Scholar
Zhang, Shi & Schmitt, Bernd. 1998. Language-dependent classification: The mental representation of classifiers in cognition, memory, and ad evaluations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 4 (4), 375385.Google Scholar