• Language and Information
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.49-65
• /
• 2007

Since Perlmutter (1978) proposed the Unaccusativity Hypothesis, the past two decades have seen a flourish of studies investigating the potential validity of unaccusativity in Korean. The central contentious issues have been whether unaccusativity can also be assumed in Korean, and, if so, what criteria could be proposed to discern the unaccusativity among various predicates. In this paper, several suggestions made theoretically and experimentally to address the semantic and/or syntactic distinction of the two types of Korean intransitive predicates are critically reviewed and evaluated from the standpoint that there is a close correlation between syntax and lexical semantics of intransitives. It is proposed, then, that the Korean unaccusativity can be reliably differentiated through the combined semantic criteria of [${\pm}$agentive] and [${\pm}$active]. In addition, case alternations in long form negation constructions are shown to be the most reliable and valid syntactic criteria for testing Korean unaccusatives.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.41-46
• /
• 1998

The argument-structure distributions of predicates in the speech of two roca-type aphasic patients and one Conduction-type patient are compared with both matched controls and each other on the basis of narrative production data. Whereas English-speaking agrammatics have been reported to have difficulties producing noncopular unaccusative predicates (Kegl 1995) Korean-speaking agrammatics are found not to have particular difficulties with unaccusative predicates. On the assumption that agrammatics lack specific syntactic knowledge for the processing of displaced arguments from their lexically specified positions. it is proposed that unaccusatives in Korean do not involve the displacement of arguments for Case-theoretic reasons or involve a vacuous movement. if any.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.199-216
• /
• 2009

This study investigates how Korean speakers develop their interlanguage of English passive constructions with a reference to the learners' grammar proficiency levels. Sixty two college students of different levels of English participated in this study. They were asked to complete a sentence-completion task. Their production was classified into accurate passives, malformed passives, pseudo-passives, unaccusatives, and actives according to the use of transitive, ergative and unergative verbs. They then were further analyzed depending on the subjects' levels of grammar by three main factors: L1 transfer, the English voice system, and universal cognitive factors. The results showed that the subjects of the lower group produced more pseudo-passives, malformed passives, and overpassivization than those of the higher group, and even subjects of higher group still made passives for ergative verbs. It was also shown that L1 and universal factors had more influence on the lower group than on the higher group. Based on the analyses of the subjects' responses, the development of the English passive system by Korean learners is shown and some implications are suggested for effective teaching of English.