Psycholinguistic investigations into Oceanic possessive classifiers

I discuss possessive classifier systems in six Oceanic languages from Vanuatu (Merei, Lewo, Vatlongos and North Ambrym) and New Caledonia (Nêlêmwa and Iaai) from a psycholinguistic perspective. Results from three experiments show the classifier systems differ in how nouns are assigned to classifiers – from variable classifier-like systems (nouns can co-occur with different classifiers) to rigid gender-like systems (nouns are restricted to only one classifier). The experiments reveal differences between types of classifiers within a language – speakers prefer to use classifiers with large open membership to classifiers with small-closed membership, even when the latter is more semantically precise.