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Kang, Seokhan, Ahn, Hyunkee, & Hong, Minpyo. 2012. The Acquisition of L2 English Focused Words by Korean Learners. The Korean Journal of Language, 37-1, 1-23. It has been suggested that the duration of stay in an L2 environment has some influence on the L2 acquisition. This study investigates the effect of Korean speakers' duration of stay in an English-speaking environment on their production of focus features such as pitch accent patterns, pitch range, and duration of focused words. It was hypothesized that the Korean speakers who had been immersed in the English-speaking environment for over 3 years at the level of university would show prosodic features of English focus more similar to those of native English speakers than the Korean speakers who had been immersed in the same environment for less than a year. Thirty subjects in three groups―Korean adults with the long immersion experience, Korean adults with the short immersion experience, and native English speakers―took part in the experiment. The result showed that the long immersion group produced more native-like prosody such as a greater number of pitch-peak patterns, wider pitch ranges, and a longer duration. However, in some measurements, both groups exhibited difficulty in producing the correct pitch-peak patterns. Also their prosody was affected by the semantic types of sentences: both groups showed some　difficulty　in　setting　up　native-like pitch-peak　patterns　in　unergative　sentences.　These　results　suggest　that the acquisition of L2 focus is highly tied with the semantic types of sentences. (Seoul National University & Myongji University)　

Kwak, Eun-Joo. 2012. A Lexical Approach to the Semantics of Classifiers. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 37-1, 25-45. Numeral readings are expressed by numeral NPs either with or without classifiers. Traditionally, classifiers are assumed to carry the counting function. Nomoto (2010) argues against this view and proposes that classifiers include atomicity and classification in their semantics. He claims that the lack of subkind readings with numeral NPs with classifiers is ascribed to the singularity of classifiers. I critically review Nomoto's structural analysis and propose that classifiers include information for argument domains in their semantics. I argue that both the lack of subkind readings and its exceptions are due to the different lexical properties of classifiers. (Sejong University)

Kim, Yong-Suk. 2012. Toward a Syntax without T. Korean Journal of Linguistics 37-1, 47-67. This paper doubts the existence of the tense-category T along the line of Kim's(2010a, 2010b) assumption of lexical categorization. I show that the adoption of T-category to the syntactic description of natural languages gives rise to a variety of undesirable imperfections within the grammatical systems like Chomsky's(2001, 2004, 2005a, 2005b) Probe-Goal Framework, and argue that the imperfections and the empirical problems attributed to them, including three troublesome mysteries, can be completely solved under the framework of so-called 'Syntax without T-Category,' which is proposed in this paper. It also comes to light in this paper that CP is only the cyclic phase for the computation of narrow syntax, and vP conjugated with v*P is nothing but a sematic unit of 'proposition' rather than cyclic phase, under which claim all the problematic issues ascribed to the conception of strong phase v*P automatically disappear. (Hansung University)

Kim, Jieun, 2012. What Sluicing Comes from in Korean is Pseudo-cleft. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 37-1, 69-106. This paper investigates the sluicing construction in Korean. Two approaches have competed for the source of the so-called sluicing construction in Korean; one follows the wh-movement followed by TP deletion analysis suggested by Takahashi (1994) and the other follows a reduced cleft analysis suggested by Nishiyama et al. (1996) and Kuwabara (1996) among many others. I will follow neither of the analyses suggested in Japanese. Meanwhile, I will provide four empirical pieces of evidence why Korean sluicing cannot be derived in the analogous way as in English. The possibility narrows down to the cleft analysis. However, I will show that even cleft cannot be the derivational source for sluicing. I propose that it is actually derived from only a pseudo-cleft sentence. (University of Ulsan)

Kim, Haeyeon. 2012. A Study of the Uses and Meanings of the Word Nactai 'Low' in a Korean Written Corpus. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 37-1, 107-129. We encode our perception of space such as distance, height, direction, and so on. Among these space-denoting words, this research explores uses and meanings of nacta 'low' as one of our perception about height in space through an analysis of a written Korean corpus. First, this study examines the distribution of uses of nacta in terms of grammatical functions, showing the frequency of nacta in attributive and predicative positions. Second, this work shows meanings of nacta in the database, summarizing them in the following terms: (i) physical reality of height (ie., lowness in height), (ii) little amount of quantity on a vertical scale, (iii) low levels of quality of abstract entities on a scale, (iv) low levels in a social hierarchy, and (v) low frequency rates in a human voice or sound. Such semantic properties of nacta indicate that the basic meaning of nacta as physical reality of height is metaphorically extended to denote relative relations/levels among abstract entities in quality, abstract quality, society, and frequency rates in sound. This work characterizes abstract meanings of nacta in terms of metaphor theory, showing that height in quality, degrees, and social relations are derived from our conceptual notion that views height between a reference point and a target on a vertical scale in terms of a numerical scale. Finally, this research suggests that a corpus-based cognitive approach to language is a useful tool in characterizing metaphorically extended meanings of space-denoting words. (Chung-Ang University)

Nam, Juyeon, Kim, Youngjoo, Choi, enjung, & Lee, Sunhee, 2012. A Study on the Correlation between Language Aptitude and Grammaticality Judgement Competence. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 37-1, 131-155. This study examines the correlation between grammaticality judgement competence and language aptitude which is known as parameter of the success of second language learning. Aptitude and grammaticality judgement competence of 61 foreign learners of Korean were measured. PLAB was used for language aptitude and Korean grammaticality judgement test was developed to measure grammaticality judgement competence. The result showed that language analysis and sound discrimination which were sub-areas of language aptitude, and total score of language aptitude had very distinct correlation. Although the correlation between the total score of grammaticality judgement test and the total score of language aptitude was not found, the positive correlation was found between language analysis and the accuracy of 'locative particle’ and ‘honorific expression'. Language analysis and the accuracy of connecting ending '(-neurago)' showed a negative correlation. Also, a negative correlation between sound discrimination and the accuracy of ending '(-deon)' in learners of 5th level was found. Even though there was no correlation between TOPIK ranking and language aptitude, the study found the negative correlation between sound discrimination and age. (Kyung Hee University)

Baek, Seung Ik. 2012. Possibility As New Typological Standard In Multi Languages: KIC index. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 37-1, 157-177. Modern English is said to be nearer to the isolating language than the inflectional. Then, how far is English from inflectional languages? Is it impossible to compare among English, agglutinative and inflectional languages? In case of KIC index, it's possible. KIC index (Keeping morpheme ing category) means establishing "emic" standard with common "ing" translations, then checking whether keeping its category or not after the morpho-syntactic change, and finally indexing. This paper analyzes "ing" from English novel, Jane Eyre, and shows how different the result is from our typological belief after the comparison with translated texts in Korean, German, French and Japanese. KIC index "Verb" proved the general belief that English is nearer to the inflectional language than the agglutinative, and its main reason was the grammatical distinction from embedded and adverbial clauses between typologies. On the other hand, KIC index "Adverb" showed results to reflect syntactic characters of each language. Against our belief, German showed the lowest KIC index because it frequently switched "ing" structures into clauses. Reversely, Korean showed the relatively higher rate of the conservation in "Adverb". KIC index provides a new typological standard by using Jane Eyre and 4 kinds of the morpheme "ing" morpho-syntactic behavior. This paper suggests not only the Korean share in typology but also the index including complex sentences. (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies)

Yoon, YoungEun. 2012. Pragmatic Minimalism vs. Maximalism: A Reply to Hansen (2008). Korean Journal of Linguistics, 37-1, 179-198. Bach (2001, 2005) argues for a clear division between semantics and pragmatics. In the same vein, he proposes that the so-called minimal notion of ‘what is said’ is available to language users. On the other hand, Recanati (2001, 2004) argues that the minimal notion of what is said, i.e., the so-called minimal proposition, is not what the sentence says and has no position in the actual process of understanding the utterance. That is, the semantically underdetermined literal meaning cannot be available to language users at any point in communication. In this context, Hansen (2008) claims that if real-life data such as courtroom conversations are taken into consideration, the literal meanings of utterances are revealed to be available to ‘non-linguistically trained’ ordinary language users. Given all these, this paper revisits the two contrasting views on ‘what is said,’ i.e., pragmatic minimalism and maximalism, dubbed by Recanati (2001), and represented by Bach (2001, 2005) and Recanati (2001, 2004) respectively, among others. The main purpose of this paper is to consider the validity of Hansen’s (2008) proposal based on courtroom data, and to argue that the availability of the literal meaning to language users seems to be a myth. (Ewha Womans University)

Lee, Kyunghee, Lee, Shinsook, & Cho, Mi-Hui. 2012. The Production of English Voiceless Sibilants /s/ and /ʃ/ by Young Korean Children. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 37-1, 199-221. This study explored the acquisition of English voiceless sibilants /s/ and /ʃ/ by young Korean children by conducting production experiments. For this purpose, 30 male and 23 female Korean children aged 3 to 6 years produced 32 English nonce words either beginning or ending with /s/ and /ʃ/ in two vowel contexts /i/ and /u/. The results showed that English /ʃ/ showed early acquisition relative to English /s/ across all the age groups, similar to the results obtained by Smit et al. (1990) for English children. There was an age effect in that the difference in mean accuracy between 3-year olds and 6-year olds was statistically significant even though there was no gender effect. Further, there was a partial positional effect as Korean children's production of English /s/ was poor in onset compared to coda but their production of /ʃ/ was much better in onset than in coda. Although there was no effect of adjacent vowels, the children's production of the target sound /s/ showed the lowest percentage correct in the context of the vowel /i/. Importantly, the results were partly attributed to the effects of Korean s-palatalization and coarticulations between the target sounds and neighboring vowels on the basis of the children's error patterns. Implications for the acquisition of English voiceless sibilants by young Korean children were also drawn. (Korea University & Kyonggi University)

Choe, Mun-Hong, 2012. Morphosyntactic Correlates for Simple Sentence Production in English and Korean. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 37-1, 223-241. In this study, we experimentally demonstrate that the mechanisms underlying sentence production are contingent on the morphosyntax of a speaker's language. We reason that since the subject in English is denoted by reference to tense while it is normally by an overt case marker in Korean, English speakers' message formation and linguistic encoding center on verb features, whereas Korean speakers elect a subject first and then draw a predicate. We have conducted an experiment on the hypotheses that (a) English L1 speakers are disposed to make sentences based on verbal information; (b) In contrast, Korean L1 speakers would start utterance once they identify a subject; (c) Korean speakers' L1 patterns would be persistent in their L2 English processing. The results and some implications for language learning are discussed. (Chonnam National University)