Quantity processing of Chinese numeral classifiers: Distance and congruity effects.

ABSTRACT: A numeral classifier is required between a numeral and a noun in Chinese, which comes in two varieties, sortal classifier (C) and mensural classifier (M). A recent linguistic theory suggests that C/Ms carry quantity information, where C and M converge as the multiplicand, with numeral as the multiplier, but C and M diverge in the mathematical values they denote. However, previous empirical studies were sparse and presented inconsistent results. This study aimed to investigate the mathematical function of C/Ms using the number-size task in which participants had to choose from two C/M phrases the one that represents a larger quantity or in a larger font size. If C/M phrases engage quantity processing like numbers, distance and congruity effects should emerge. As expected, participants perfo

SUBMITTER: Chen YC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6221336 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature