• Language and Information
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.87-99
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• 2003

This paper investigates the role of input frequency in the acquisition of verb argument structures based on distributional information of a corpus of utterances derived from the English CHILDES database (MacWhinney 1993). It has been widely accepted that children successfully learn verb argument structures by innate language mechanisms, such as linking rules which connect verb meanings and its syntactic structures. In contrast, an approach to language acquisition called “statistical language learning” has currently claimed that children could succeed in acquiring syntactic structures in the absence of innate language mechanisms, making use of distributional properties of the input. In this paper, I evaluate the feasibility of the statistical learning in acquiring verb argument structures, based on distributional information about locative verbs in parental input. The naturalistic data allow us to investigate to what extent the statistical learning approach can and cannot help children succeed in learning the syntax of locative verbs. Based on the results of English database analysis, I show that there is rich statistical information for learning the syntactic possibilities of locative verbs in parental input, despite some limitations in the statistical learning approach.

• 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.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.41-59
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• 2009

The present study investigated Korean learners' knowledge on the range of possible interpretations of English locative PPs with manner of motion verbs, and considers whether learners can arrive at a superset L2 grammar on the basis of positive L2 input. Unlike Korean, some English locative PPs occurring with manner of motion verbs (such as in John jumped on the bed) are ambiguous as they can be interpreted as either directional or locational. Thirty Korean learners of English in three distinct groups (Advanced EFL-only group; Intermediate-EFL-only group; and ESL-experienced group) participated in an experimental study, along with a control group of nine native speakers of English. The results of the study showed that I) Korean learners, overall, tended to interpret English locative PPs as only locational, failing to recognize the ambiguity between the directional and locational readings in the target structure; 2) For the learners who experienced only the EFL context, even highly proficient learners, as well as intermediate level learners, failed to acknowledge the ambiguity; 3) The learners who experienced the ESL context for an extended period of time could identify the target reading to some extent, although they still could not reach the native-like competence. From these results, it is argued that robustness of positive evidence, not simply its availability, is critical in the acquisition of the superset L2 targets like the present one.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.45-55
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• 1999

This paper argues that the basic modes of spatial cognition can be best identified in terms of argument/participant location, and shows that natural language uses‘simple’types of semantic denotations to encode spatial cognition, and further notes that spatial expressions should be interpreted not as locating an event/state as a whole but as locating arguments/participants of the event. The ways of locating events/states are identified in terms of argument orientation(AO), Which indicates semantic patterns of linkiarticipant location. and shows that natural langrage uses ng locatives to specific arguments. Four patterns of argument orientation described here reveal substantial modes of spatial cognition. and the AO patterns are mostly determined by the semantic classes of English verbs combining with locative expressions, i.e., by the event type of the predicate. As for the denotational constraint of locatives, the paper concludes that semantic denotations of locative PPs are restricted to the intersecting functions mapping relations to relations.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.47-64
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• 2003

In the present study, the production of grammatical morphemes of Korean-speaking children with and without developmental language impairments was investigated. Ten children with language impairments (LI) (CA: 4; 4-6; 11, LA: 3; .6-5; 10) and 10 normal children (CA: 3;1-6;3, LA: 3;5-5;11) with matched language abilities participated in the study. Sixty pairs of pictures were used to elicit 12 types of predetermined grammatical morphemes. The two pictures of a pair were designed to elicit two sentences of the same sentence structure. After the investigator described one picture of a pair, the children were asked to describe the other picture. The LI children made more errors than the normal children in the production of 6 types of grammatical morphemes including: locative case marker, dative case marker, two connective endings of predicates representing cause and goal, and suffixes for passive and causative verbs. However, the LI children produced some grammatical morphemes as accurately as. the normal children. The two groups were similar in their error patterns. Some explanations for Korean-speaking LI children's use of grammatical morphemes were suggested.