Do classifiers make the syntactic count/mass distinction? Insights from ERPs in classifier processing in Japanese

We examined event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by the within-count/mass-category violation (e.g., an object name accompanied by a classifier for other objects) and the across-count/mass-category violation (e.g., an object name accompanied by a classifier for substances). In both experiments, the violation of the noun–classifier agreements elicited the N400, regardless of whether the noun–classifier disagreement was made within or across the ontological object/substance boundary. The across-count/mass-category violation did not recruit a syntactic process in the brain, suggesting that the Japanese classifier system does not highlight the distinction between objects and substances. The results also indicated that the processing of Japanese numeral classifiers is primarily semantic-based.
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - Category: Speech Therapy Source Type: research