Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions:

This article examines the classifier effect on categorization among advanced Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners. More specifically, it aims to answer this question: Is non-classifier language speakers’ categorization of objects influenced by the acquisition of the Chinese classifier system?

Design/methodology/approach, data and analysis:

Native Chinese speakers, advanced CSL learners and non-CSL participants were asked to rate the relatedness of drawing pairs based on either classifier or taxonomy/theme; advanced CSL learners and non-CSL participants were then asked to immediately recall two lists of nouns, one associated with three taxonomic categories and the other with three classifiers. Repeated-measures ANOVA was conducted to examine the major effect between drawing relations (classifier related, taxonomically/thematically related and unrelated) and participant groups. Two measures of NCR (number of correct recall) and RR (ratio of repetition) were calculated and analysed to examine effective memory retrieval as well as subjective clustering.

Findings/conclusions:

Results showed that preferences for classifier-based and taxonomy/theme -based categorizations differed between advanced CSL learners and non-CSL participants. CSL learners’ knowledge of the classifier system also facilitated their performance in recalling and clustering objects. The findings revealed that concepts in bilingual minds may be language-specific and an alternative interpretation of the real world is internalized by learning a new language.

Originality:

Unlike previous studies, this article extended the examination of the cognitive consequences of classifiers to late bilinguals whose second language (L2) proficiency was formally assessed.

Significance/implications:

This study contributes empirical data supporting the importance of nonverbal behavioural evidence in the study of bilingual cognition. The degree and nature of the restructuring of real-world referents as a consequence of acquiring Chinese classifiers is of pedagogical value to second-language acquisition (SLA).

中文翻译：

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高级汉语二级用户分类效果的实证研究

目的和宗旨/目的/研究问题：

本文研究了分类器对高级汉语作为第二语言（CSL）学习者分类的影响。更具体地说，它旨在回答以下问题：非分类语言使用者的对象分类是否受汉语分类系统获取的影响？

设计/方法/方法，数据和分析：

要求以汉语为母语的人，高级CSL学习者和非CSL参与者根据分类器或分类法/主题对绘图对的相关性进行评分；然后，要求高级CSL学习者和非CSL学习者立即回忆出两个名词列表，一个名词与三个分类类别相关，另一个名词与三个分类器相关。进行了重复测量方差分析，以检查绘图关系（分类器相关，分类学/主题相关和不相关）与参与者组之间的主要影响。计算并分析了NCR（正确召回次数）和RR（重复率）的两种量度，以检验有效的记忆检索以及主观聚类。

结果/结论：

结果表明，高级CSL学习者和非CSL参与者对基于分类器和基于分类法/主题的分类的偏好有所不同。CSL学习者对分类器系统的了解还有助于他们在回忆和聚类对象方面的表现。研究结果表明，双语思想中的概念可能是特定于语言的，并且通过学习新语言可以内化对现实世界的替代解释。

独创性：

与以前的研究不同，本文将对分类器的认知后果的检查扩展到了已正式评估其第二语言（L2）能力的晚期双语者。

意义/含义：

这项研究提供的经验数据支持非语言行为证据在双语认知研究中的重要性。习得汉语分类器后，现实世界中的参照物重组的程度和性质对第二语言习得（SLA）具有教学价值。