TY - JOUR

T1 - The acquisition of the semantics of Japanese numeral classifiers

T2 - The methodological value of nonsense

AU - Kubota, Maki

AU - Matsuoka, Yuko

AU - Rothman, Jason

PY - 2025/3/31

Y1 - 2025/3/31

N2 - This study examined the acquisition of numeral classifiers in 120 monolingual Japanese children. Previous research has argued that the complex semantic system underlying classifiers is late acquired. Thus, we set out to determine the age at which Japanese children are able to extend the semantic properties of classifiers to novel items/situations. Participants completed a comprehension task with a mouse-tracking extension and a production task with nonce and familiar items. While the comprehension results showed ceiling effects on familiar and nonce items, age significantly modulated a difference in accuracy between familiar and nonce items in the production task. The findings suggest that the acquisition of the underlying semantic system is acquired much earlier than previously argued. Previously attested issues with Japanese classifier production in young(er) children are more likely to reflect accessing difficulties than indexing the underlying grammatical competence of the classifier system.

AB - This study examined the acquisition of numeral classifiers in 120 monolingual Japanese children. Previous research has argued that the complex semantic system underlying classifiers is late acquired. Thus, we set out to determine the age at which Japanese children are able to extend the semantic properties of classifiers to novel items/situations. Participants completed a comprehension task with a mouse-tracking extension and a production task with nonce and familiar items. While the comprehension results showed ceiling effects on familiar and nonce items, age significantly modulated a difference in accuracy between familiar and nonce items in the production task. The findings suggest that the acquisition of the underlying semantic system is acquired much earlier than previously argued. Previously attested issues with Japanese classifier production in young(er) children are more likely to reflect accessing difficulties than indexing the underlying grammatical competence of the classifier system.

KW - acquisition

KW - classifier

KW - distributional cues

KW - embodiment

KW - Japanese

KW - verb learning

U2 - 10.1017/S0305000923000661

DO - 10.1017/S0305000923000661

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85183849838

VL - 52

SP - 218

EP - 243

JO - Journal of Child Language

JF - Journal of Child Language

SN - 0305-0009

IS - 2

ER -