• Title/Summary/Keyword: general English

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On Implementation of Korean-English Machine Translation System through Program Reuse (프로그램 재사용을 통한 한/영 기계번역시스템의 구현에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Hion-Gun;Yang, Gi-Chul;Choi, Key-Sun
    • Annual Conference on Human and Language Technology
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    • 1993.10a
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    • pp.559-570
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    • 1993
  • In this article we present a rapid development of a Korean to English translation system, by the help of general English generator, PENMAN. PENMAN is an English sentence generation system, of which input language is a language specially devised for sentence generation, named Sentence Planning Language(SPL). The language SPL has various features that are necessary for generating sentences, covering both syntactic and semantic features. In this development we integrated a Korean language parser based on dependency grammar and the English sentence generator PENMAN, bridging two systems through a converting module, which converts dependency structures produced by Korean parser into SPL for PENMAN.

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On English Non-DP Subjects and their Structural Position (영어 non-DP 주어의 구조적 위치)

  • 홍성심
    • Language and Information
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    • v.6 no.2
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    • pp.1-14
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    • 2002
  • This paper discusses so called the non-DP subject constructions in English. In general, a subject is a DP that bears Nominative case and that occupies 〔Spec, IP〕. However, in some examples under investigation, it looks as if non-DP categories such as Prepositional Phrases(PP), Adjectival Phrases(AP), Adverbial Phrases (AdvP), Small Clauses (PreP or SC), and VP occupy the canonical subject position, 〔Spec, IP〕. Under the framework of Chomsky's (1993, 1995) along with his previous works (Chomsky 1981, 1986), the Case Checking mechanism undoubtedly assumes that only DPs can have Case Therefore, the Case Checking/Agree mechanism is stated such that the strong uninterpretable feature, in this case Case feature (D or NP) feature must be checked off in a certain manner. Therefore, any phrasal categories other than DPs are not included in the considerations. Nonetheless, there are many instances of non-DP categories in English that occupy the seemingly canonical subject position, 〔spec, IP〕. In this paper, it is proposed that the actual position of these non-DP subjects in English is not in Spec of IP. Rather, they occupy 〔Spec, TopP〕 under CP in the sense of Lasnik & Stowell (1991), Rizzi (1997), and Haegeman & Gueron (1999). In its effect, therefore, this paper extends the idea of Stowell (1981) who argues that the clausal subjects in English is not in 〔Spec, IP〕, but in 〔Spec, TopP〕. We further argue that Stowell's version of Case Resistance Principle must be extended in order to accomodate many more occurrences of so called non-DP subjects.

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The relationship between vowel production and proficiency levels in L2 English produced by Korean EFL learners

  • Lee, Seohee;Rhee, Seok-Chae
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.11 no.2
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    • pp.1-13
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    • 2019
  • This study explored the relationship between accurate vowel production and proficiency levels in L2 English produced by Korean EFL adult learners. To this end, nine English vowels /i, ɪ, ɛ, æ, ʌ, ɔ, ɑ, ʊ, u/ were selected and adjacent vowels paired up (e.g., /i/-/ɪ/, /u/-/ʊ/, /ɛ/-/æ/, /ʌ/-/ɔ/, /ɔ/-/ɑ/). The spectral features of the pairs were measured instrumentally, namely F1 (indicating tongue height) and F2 (indicating tongue backness). Meanwhile, the durations as well as spectral features of the tense and lax counterparts in /i/-/ɪ/ and /u/-/ʊ/ were measured, as both temporal and spectral features are important in distinguishing them. The findings of this study confirm that higher-rated speakers were better able to distinguish the contrasts in the front vowel pairs /i/-/ɪ/ and /ɛ/-/æ/ than lower-rated learners, but in the central and back vowel pairs /u/-/ʊ/and /ʌ/-/ɔ/ (though not /ɔ/-/ɑ/), Korean EFL learners generally showed difficulty distinguishing adjacent vowels with spectral cues. On the other hand, the durations of the tense and lax vowels showed that the lower-rated speakers were less able to use the temporal feature to differentiate tense vowels from their lax counterparts, unlike previous studies that found that in general Korean learners depend excessively on the temporal cue to distinguish tense and lax vowels.

The acquisition of boundary tones in spontaneous speech by Korean learners of English

  • Choe, Wook Kyung
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.12 no.4
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    • pp.47-55
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    • 2020
  • The current study was designed to investigate which type of phrase boundary tones high-intermediate Korean learners of English used in their spontaneous speech. These boundary tones were compared to those used in native speakers' spontaneous speech to examine whether the learners successfully acquired the use of boundary tones. To achieve this purpose, 10 Korean learners of English and four native speakers of English participated in the current study. The participants were asked to summarize the stories of short videos, and the tonal and the phrasing patterns of the obtained spontaneous speech were analyzed using Tone and Break Indices (ToBI) transcription conventions. The results indicated that both the native speakers and the Korean learners frequently marked their intonational phrase boundaries with high boundary tones. However, regarding the prosodic phrase positions within a sentence, Korean learners frequently used steep rising tones (i.e., H-H%) while native speakers used gradual rising tones (i.e., L-H%) for sentence-final intonational phrases. Overall, the findings suggested that high-intermediate Korean learners understood the forward-looking function of the high boundary tones and that they were able to make use of these tones to mark intonational phrases in their spontaneous speech.

An Ambiguity View of Specificity

  • Yeom, Jae-Il
    • Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.81-100
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    • 2001
  • In this paper I review previous analyses of specific indefinites, and propose a new analysis. The main claim is that a specific indefinite presupposes that an agent, a speaker in general, has in mind an individual which satisfies the descriptive content. I provide evidence for the ambiguity view of specificity. First, I show that a specific indefinite triggers a pre- supposition. Second, I show that a specific indefinite is a strong quantifier while a nonspecific is a weak one. Finally, I discuss different behaviors of specific and nonspecific indefinites in anaphora.

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A Comparative Study on the Verb Way Construction: English and Dutch

  • Kim, Mija
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.24
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    • pp.132-146
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    • 2011
  • This paper is intended to describe the idiosyncratic aspects of the verb way construction in English, clarifying the productivity property of this construction and to elucidate the claim that this construction displays the properties of language-general, not a language-particular by comparing the behaviors from Dutch. And this paper will argue against the lexical approach and explain the drastic mismatches in syntax and semantics responsible for the constructional properties as one type of directional motion constructions by proposing a constructional analysis in HPSG.

The Applicability of Schema Theory to Scientific Texts

  • Im, Byung-Bin;Lee, Jong-Hee
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.10 no.1
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    • pp.1-22
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    • 2004
  • The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the applicability of content and formal schemata for processing the scientific texts which encompass the human knowledge of the physical world. In general, schema theory is based on the culture-oriented background of a text. From this point of view, the problem as to whether both content and formal schemata are applicable to the comprehension of a scientific text deserves a focal attention in terms of information processing modes. The results of empirical study indicate that whereas the universality of general knowledge content about the natural world attenuates the tenets of schema theory, the rhetorical organization of scientific texts encourages the application of the schema-based approach; the reader's familiarity with the structural patterns of a text facilitates his reading comprehension.

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Confusion in the Perception of English Labial Consonants by Korean Learners (한국 학습자들의 영어 순자음 혼동)

  • Cho, Mi-Hui
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.455-464
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    • 2009
  • Based on the observation that Korean speakers of English have difficulties in producing English fricatives, a perception experiment was designed to investigate whether Korean speakers also have difficulties perceiving English labial consonants including fricatives. Forty Korean college students were asked to perform a multiple-choice identification test. The consonant perception test consisted of nonce words which contained English labial consonants [p, b, f, v] in 4 different prosodic locations: initial onset position, intervocalic position before stress, intervocalic position after stress, and final coda position. The general perception pattern was that the mean accuracy rates were higher in strong position like CV and VCVV than in weak position like VC and VVCV. The difficulties in perceiving the English targets resulted mainly from bidirectional manner confusion between stop and fricative across all prosodic locations. The other types of misidentification were due to place confusion as well as voicing confusion. Place confusion was generated mostly by the target [f] in all prosodic position due to acoustic properties. Voicing confusion was heavily influenced by prosodic position. The misperception of the participants was accounted for by phonetic properties and/or the participants' native language properties.

Influence of standard Korean and Gyeongsang regional dialect on the pronunciation of English vowels (표준어와 경상 지역 방언의 한국어 모음 발음에 따른 영어 모음 발음의 영향에 대한 연구)

  • Jang, Soo-Yeon
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.13 no.4
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    • pp.1-7
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    • 2021
  • This study aims to enhance English pronunciation education for Korean students by examining the impact of standard Korean and Gyeongsang regional dialect on the articulation of English vowels. Data were obtained through the Korean-Spoken English Corpus (K-SEC). Seven Korean words and ten English mono-syllabic words were uttered by adult, male speakers of standard Korean and Gyeongsang regional dialect, in particular, speakers with little to no experience living abroad were selected. Formant frequencies of the recorded corpus data were measured using spectrograms, provided by the speech analysis program, Praat. The recorded data were analyzed using the articulatory graph for formants. The results show that in comparison with speakers using standard Korean, those using the Gyeongsang regional dialect articulated both Korean and English vowels in the back. Moreover, the contrast between standard Korean and Gyeongsang regional dialect in the pronunciation of Korean vowels (/으/, /어/) affected how the corresponding English vowels (/ə/, /ʊ/) were articulated. Regardless of the use of regional dialect, a general feature of vowel pronunciation among Korean people is that they show more narrow articulatory movements, compared with that of native English speakers. Korean people generally experience difficulties with discriminating tense and lax vowels, whereas native English speakers have clear distinctions in vowel articulation.

Vocabulary Size of Korean EFL University Learners: Using an Item Response Theory Model

  • Lee, Yongsang;Chon, Yuah V.;Shin, Dongkwang
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.171-195
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    • 2012
  • While noticing that there is insufficient interest in the assessment of EFL learners' vocabulary levels or sizes, the researchers developed two tests identical in form (Forms A and B) to assess the lexical knowledge of Korean university learners at the $1^{st}{\sim}10^{th}$ 1,000 word bands by adapting a pre-established vocabulary levels test (VLT). Of equal concern was to investigate if the VLT was equally a valid and reliable instrument to be used on measuring the lexical knowledge of EFL learners. The participants were 804 university freshmen enrolled in a General Education English Course from four different colleges. The learners were asked to respond to either Form A or B. While scores generally fell towards the lower frequency bands, multiple regression found the Korean College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) to be a significant variable for predicting the learners' vocabulary sizes. From a methodological perspective, however, noticeable differences between Forms A and B could be found with item response theory analysis. The findings of the study provide suggestions on how future VLT for testing EFL learners may have to be redesigned.

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