• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.211-225
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• 2001

The prepositional object (PO) of an active sentence in English can sometimes be passivized, becoming the subject of the corresponding passive sentence. In particular, the verb (V) and preposition (P) in the English prepositional passive (P-Passive) are assumed to be reanalyzed to form a single structural unit, giving the status of a verbal object to the PO to be passivized. However, not every V+P sequence can undergo reanalysis, permitting the passivization of POs. Thus, we have to explain what licenses the reanalysis of V and p. resulting in an acceptable P-Passive sentence. In this paper, I will identify the factors which determine the passivization possibilities of POs and explain how they interact with one another. The results of this study will illustrate how formal and functional factors work together to form a major syntactic construction and to determine its grammaticality and acceptability.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.69-89
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• 2006

This study investigated whether and how semantic nature of intransitive verbs can be related to the L2 overpassivization errors. A total of 126 Korean high school students participated in a grammaticality judgment test on English sentences in which seven semantically different types of intransitive verbs were passivized. The results showed that there was an effect of semantic type on the students' judgment on overpassivization errors. Overall, it was shown that the students experienced the lowest degree of difficulty with the Controlled Process-Motional type verbs while experiencing the high degree of difficulty with the Change of State, Existence of State, Continuation of Pre-existing State, and Uncontrolled Process types. Two interlanguage patterns were also identified: the students at higher proficiency level and those at lower-proficiency level showed distinctive patterns on the task. It was argued that the simple dichotomy of unaccusative-unergative distinction does not suffice for the explanation of the complex phenomenon of L2 overpassivization.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.31-68
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• 2006

The present research investigates the acquisition of the English locative alternation by Korean EFL learners, which poses a learnability paradox, taking Pinker's framework of learnability theory as its basis. It addresses two questions (1) how lexical knowledge is represented initially and at different levels of interlanguage development and (2) what kinds of difficulty Korean learners find in the acquisition of English locative verbs and their constructions. Three groups of learners at different proficiency levels with a control group of English native speakers are examined by two instruments: elicited production task and grammaticality judgment task. According to different levels of proficiency, the learners exhibit gradual sensitivity to a change-of-state meaning and obtain complete perception of the meanings of locative verbs (manner-of-motion and change-of-state) and their constructions. Overgeneralization errors are observed in their performance. The errors are due to misinterpretations of particular lexical items in conjunction with the universal linking rules. More fundamental cause of difficulty is accounted for by partial use of learning mechanisms, caused by insufficient L2 input.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.127-133
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• 2010

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between sentence repetition and sentence production in school-age children. The participants included 120 school-age children through 1st to 6th grades who were then divided into three grade groups (lower grade: 1st to 2nd grades, intermediate grade: 3th to 4th grades, and higher grade: 5th to 6th grades). The repetition task consisted of 32 sentences that were classified by sentence length (5, 6, 7, and 8 words) and structure (conjunctive and embedded sentences). The sentence production task utilized Lee's (2007) grammaticality judgement and sentence combining task. The findings of present study were as follows. (1) The higher grade performed significantly better than the lower and intermediate grades. (2) The participants performed significantly worse when imitating longer sentences than when imitating shorter ones. In addition, there were interaction effects between grade groups and sentences length. (3) The participants performed significantly better when imitating conjunctive rather than embedded sentences. (4) There was significantly positive correlation between the sentence repetition and sentence production task.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2002

In this paper, a persistent L1 influence on L2 argument structure acquisition is observed in terms of complement and adjunct PPs. Since the distinction between these two PPs in L1 seems not as sharp as in L2, overgeneralization is anticipated in the L2 acquisition due to L1 transfer. Result of an experimental study shows that Korean learners of English do not successfully acquire L2 verb meanings as to which locative PP is obligatory and which is not. Generally, learners transfer the L1 properties when asked to judge grammaticality. Some possible source of constraints in L2 acquisition, such as input frequency and noticing ability is proposed as possible explanations of data. Finally, pedagogical implications in language classroom for vocabulary acquisition are discussed.

• Language and Information
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.77-96
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• 2007

This paper investigates syntactic variations in English such as Dative Alternation, Particle Inversion, and Object Postposition (Heavy NP Shift) within the framework of Optimality Theory, and shows that the same set of morphological, informational, and processing constraints affect all these variations. In particular, it shows that the variants that used to be regarded as ungrammatical are in fact used fairly often in reality, especially when processing or informational conditions are met, and therefore, grammatical judgment may not be always categorical but sometimes gradient. It is argued that the notion of distance in constraint ranking in stochastic OT can effectively explain the gradience and variability of grammaticality in the variation phenomena.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2003

In implicit learning tasks, human participants learn grammatical letter strings better than random letter strings. After learning grammatical letter strings, participants were able to judge the grammaticality of new letter strings that they have never seen before. EPAM (Elementary Perceiver and Memorizer) IV, a rote learner without any rule abstraction mechanism, was used to simulate these results. The results showed that EPAM IV with a within-item chunking function was able to learn grammatical letter strings better than random letter strings and discriminate grammatical letter strings from non-grammatical letter strings. The success of EPAM IV in simulating human performance strongly indicated that recognition memory based on chunking plays a critical role in implicit learning.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.529-535
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• 2014

This study is to establish the consistency of Subject-Verb agreement in quantifier phrase. Absence of consistency in English grammar is critical to the grammaticality. We focused on the grammar part, specifically, S-V agreement rule in quantifier phrase. We believe the existence of exceptional rules in quantifier S-V structure is not necessary as the basic grammar rule on S-V agreement is sufficient enough and adding exceptional rules just make it more difficult and confusing. We argue specific features indwelt in each quantifier are linked when quantifiers are used pronominally and the ${\pm}$feature plays an important role in quantifier S-V agreement structure. This study shows the solution to eliminate the ungrammaticality in typical English text books by simplifying quantifier S-V agreement to make it solid and systematic.