Classifier congruency effects in Spanish-Chinese bilingual noun phrase production: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence

Mandarin Chinese employs a classifier system where specific morphemes, known as ‘classifiers’, are obligatorily positioned between a demonstrative, a numeral, or a quantifier and the noun in NPs (e.g., 一张桌子, /yi1zhang1zhuo1zi3/ [one classifierzhang1 table], ‘one table’). While previous studies have explored classifier congruency effects in monolingual Mandarin Chinese speakers, it remains unclear whether this effect extends to early Spanish-Chinese bilinguals.
To address this gap, this study investigated the classifier congruency effect in noun phrase production by 29 early Spanish-Chinese bilinguals and 30 monolingual Mandarin Chinese speakers (control group) using behavioral and electrophysiological (EEG) measures. Participants completed a picture-word interference (PWI) task in which two factors were manipulated: classifier congruency (congruent vs. incongruent) and semantic relatedness (related vs. unrelated) between the target pictures and distractor words. This resulted in four conditions: congruent/related, congruent/unrelated, incongruent/related, incongruent/unrelated.
Participants named the target pictures quickly and accurately with Mandarin Chinese noun phrases (e.g., 一只猫 [one + classifierzhi1 + cat]) while ignoring distractor words. Vocal responses (RTs) and EEG data (using a standard 32-electrode 10/20 montage) were recorded and analyzed using GLMM and a single-trial linear mixed model (LMM), respectively.
Behavioral results showed significantly longer naming latencies in classifier-incongruent and semantically related conditions in both groups compared to classifier-congruent and semantically unrelated conditions.
Electrophysiological data revealed sensitivity to classifier incongruency (N400 effect) in both groups and semantic interference, with an N400 effect in bilinguals and a P600 effect in monolingual Mandarin Chinese speakers. These findings suggest that classifiers are competitively selected during noun phrase production, and the classifier congruency effect is robust in early Spanish-Chinese bilinguals, mirroring monolingual Mandarin Chinese speakers’ processing patterns.