How classifiers become gender in Oceania: An experimental approach

The possessive classifier systems of some Oceanic languages show signs of shifting towards fixed gender systems. Typically, a noun can occur with different classifiers, depending on how the possessed item is used by the possessor (Lichtenberk, 1983). For example, nompui  ‘pig’ in Lewo (Vanuatu) occurs with either the edible or the general classifier.

In marked contrast, North Ambrym’s (Vanuatu) cognate for pig – bu – occurs only with the edible classifier (2a), not the general classifier (2b):

North Ambrym’s innovative system resembles a gender system: a noun occurs with a particular classifier regardless of context.

We designed a suite of experiments to compare possessive classifier systems in six representative Oceanic languages: Merei, Lewo, Vatlongos, North Ambrym (Vanuatu), Nêlêmwa and Iaai (New Caledonia). Each has a different inventory of classifiers, from a two-way distinction (Merei) up to 23 (Iaai). The classifier systems in these languages also represent varying degrees of informativeness: from transparent semantic motivation to opaque assignment. Effective categorisation needs to be informative to maximise communicative efficiency, but also needs to be simple, to minimise cognitive load (Hawkins, 2004). Our sample languages allow us to investigate the trade-off between these two principles of informativeness and simplicity. Our experiments were designed to uncover how and why languages would relinquish a useful, meaningful classificatory system, and adopt a rigid, apparently unmotivated gender system.

We discuss results from two recently run experiments, involving data from 122 speakers across our sample languages:

1. free listing, where participants are asked to list the members of each classifier. This establishes central members of a classifier’s semantic domains.
2. video vignettes, which depict typical and atypical interactions with different items. These determine whether speakers are free to use different classifiers (as generally believed) or whether assignment of nouns to classifiers is rigid

Data from the free listing experiment were analysed using a number of salience measures including Smith’s Salience (Smith & Borgatti, 1997), which integrates noun frequency and mean list position to provide a meaningful measure of salience. Initial results indicate that maximum salience is greater for languages with smaller classifier inventories, and that mean salience differs significantly across classifiers within languages. Additionally, a noun is less likely to be a member of two or more different classifier categories in North Ambrym and Merei than in Vatlongos or Lewo. But, interestingly, the results of the video vignettes indicate that assignment of nouns to classifiers is far more rigid in North Ambrym than in Merei, Lewo and Vatlongos. These results point to North Ambrym’s system being the most gender-like, followed by Merei, with Lewo and Vatlongos functioning more like typical classifier systems. Together our results suggest that the classifier systems tested do indeed represent different stages of grammaticalization, from classifier to gender marker.

References:
Hawkins, John. A. 2004. Efficiency and Complexity in Grammars. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lichtenberk, Frantisek. 1983. Relational Classifiers. Lingua 60(2-3):147–176.
Smith, J. J., and S. P. Borgatti. 1997. Salience counts—and so does accuracy: Correcting and updating a measure for free-list-item salience. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 7 (2): 208–9.