Earticle

Kang, Ducksoo. 2013. A Review on the Ambiguities of the Predicates in Yakut Language. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 38-4, 789-813. This paper tries to examine the syntactic property of the converb system. It finds inconsistency and contradiction in the traditional viewpoint on the converb. Especially, it points out that there is a misconception in perceiving the construction of the converb plus the predicate verb in the final place of a sentence. This paper introduces the construction of the compound predicate in the Yakut grammar. It shows how the fixed concept of the converb functions as a main verbal component in the compound predicate. This argument is justified by tree diagrams of Yakut sentences with two verbs in the final: the main verb plus the auxiliary instead the converb plus the main verb. It clears away the problem of the semantic ambiguities, unsolved by the traditional grammar. In conclusion, this paper suggests the revised category of the verbal suffixes of Yakut language. (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies)

Kim, Kyung-mi & Lee, Shinsook. 2013. Perception of Prosodic Cues in the Resolution of Ambiguous Sentences in English. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 38-4, 815-838. The paper investigated whether Korean middle school students were able to resolve ambiguous sentences in spoken English by relying on prosodic cues. Fifty eight junior high school students in Seoul and 6 peer native English listeners (Korean-Americans) in the US participated in a comprehension test, which consisted of 20 questions of main-subordinate and parenthetical syntactic structures. The results indicated that, unlike the native English listeners, a vast majority of the Korean students had much difficulty resolving ambiguous sentences although the sentences were disambiguated by prosodic cues such as phrase final lengthening, phrasing, and pauses. The Korean students' listening comprehension was not correlated with their general English ability. However, an analysis of major textbooks being used in middle schools in Korea suggests that the Korean students' poor performance in the comprehension test may be ascribable partly to their lack of exposure to the relationship between syntactic structure and prosodic structure. Based on the findings of the study, implications for the teaching of intonational cues for the resolution of ambiguous sentences in English were drawn. (Korea University)

Kim, Yong-Ha. 2013. Reflexivity and Reflexive Predicates in Korean. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 38-4, 839-854. Korean has sentences that contain no overt reflexives but show reflexivity of predicates. Based on Park’s (1985) observation, and following his terminology, we call predicates occurring in such sentences reflexive predicates. The paper is an attempt at providing an account of the nature of reflexive predicates mainly depending on the theory of reflexivity presented by Reinhart and Reuland (1993). In the course of the discussion, we will also review the weaknesses of the canonical binding theory and see that the theory of reflexive binding based on reflexivity of predicates fits well in accounting for Korean reflexive predicates. (Andong National University)

Kim, Ilkyu. 2013. Referential Status of -(n)un-marked NPs. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 38-4, 855-874. The semantic/pragmatic nature of a Korean particle -(n)un has been one of the most hotly debated topics in Korean linguistics. Nevertheless, few have provided a detailed analysis of the referential status of -(n)un-marked NPs. Rather, it is widely held that -(n)un is used for “old/given” information, without a clear definition of oldness/givenness. This paper is an attempt to provide a better understanding of the referential property of -(n)un-marked NPs by reconsidering the distinction between new vs. old information. Particularly, against recent previous studies that rely on the notion of presupposition, this study argues that -(n)un can be used for either hearer-old or discourse-old referents, with a slightly modified version of discourse-oldness. (Yale University)

Kim, Jin-Seok. 2013. On the Directions of Improving EFL Learners’ Interactional Competence in the Primary Classroom Discourse. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 38-4, 875-893. The purpose of this study is to suggest the direction of improving EFL learners’ interactional competence in the primary classroom discourse, and to suggest the checklist of evaluating teacher talk and pupil talk at the elementary level. In order to devise the checklist, Walsh(2011)’s SETT(self-evaluation of teacher talk) was revised considering EFL situation. The classroom activities were recorded, and the recordings were analysed in terms of the checklist. The results indicate that the features of interactions between teacher and student such as content feedback, referential questions, and clarification, were not implemented appropriately. Thus, in this paper, it is suggested that teachers need to improve EFL learners’ interactional competence considering scaffolding, content feedback, questions, wait-time, and they should design lesson plans based on small-group work in the language classroom to make learners more interactive in longer turns of talk. (Seoul National University of Education)

Park, Myung-Kwan, Na, Yoonjoo & Chung, Wonil. 2013. Complexity and Revision in the Syntactic Analysis of Dependency Relation in Korean: An ERP Study of the Long-distance Anaphor Caki. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 38-4, 895-919. This study investigates whether the violation of the locality condition on reflexive binding comes with processing costs during referential resolution of the Korean anaphor caki. In an event-related potential (ERP) experiment we found that, compared with the long-distance reference condition, ERP responses to the caki-mediated gender-dependent noun were significantly more positive in the local reference condition in the earliest time window (P300). However, the noun elicited a right anterior negativity (RAN) in the later time window, followed by a positivity in the ensuing time window (P600) in the long-distance, relative to the local, reference condition. It is suggested that the initial P300 effects observed in the local reference condition reflect a breach of the lexical requirement of caki that it tend to take a long-distance antecedent. It is also suggested that linking the reflexive with a distant, rather than a local, antecedent during its referential resolution requires more processing resources. The RAN effects may, on the one hand, reflect the detection of incongruence between the mental representation dictated by the general locality condition on reflexives and the representation based on the processing of the noun that matches in gender with the distant matrix subject. The P600 effects may, on the other hand, be associated with a second-pass, revised integration process that binds the reflexive with the matrix subject. (Dongguk University)

An, Young-ran. 2013. Gradience in the Korean Reduplication. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 38-4, 921-943. Korean has a type of total reduplication in which the base begins in a vowel and a consonant is inserted in the reduplicant. This paper argues that while the choice of an inserted consonant is not completely predictable, it is also not arbitrary. That is, the Korean total reduplication data illustrate the OCP effect which requires the inserted consonant to be dissimilar from adjacent consonants. However, the inserted consonant and its neighboring consonants are not distinguished across the board in all the features. This gradient OCP effect in the consonant insertion in reduplication was also verified in the experiment conducted on the Korean native speakers with nonce morphemes, given as bases, in which they were asked to write down what they considered as a natural reduplicant, when presented with a given base. The results showed that the OCP was in operation to the extent that the inserted consonants tended to be nonidentical to the existing base consonants. This tendency shows that the evidenced OCP is not categorical, but gradient. (Korea Christian University)

Yun, Gwanhi & Tesgshjargal, Munkhgerel. 2013. Mongolian Speakers' Production and Perception of Korean Word-Initial Stops Korean Journal of Linguistics, 38-4, 945-969. It has long been acknowledged that Korean three-way stop distinction might be difficult to acquire for L2 learners whose L1 has only binary distinction in consonant categories. Given that, this study examines whether/how Mongolian L2 speakers produce Korean three-way stops in word-initial position and whether they perceive the subtle differences in phonemic status. For production and perception tasks, twenty beginner-level Mongolian learners of Korean participated in the experiments. First, in order to explore their L1 Mongolian influence on L2 production, we also looked into the phonetic properties of Mongolian stops. The result showed that VOT was longer for voiceless than for voiced stop, f0 of the following vowels was higher for voiced than for voiceless stops, and intensity in transition from a stop to the following vowel was higher for voiceless than for voiced stop condition. Next, Korean three-way stops were differently produced statistically in all of the phonetic correlates by Mongolian speakers. Finally, Korean lax stops were identified as either lax or tense, tense stops were most accurately identified, and aspirated ones were perceived as aspirated above the chance level. These results provide interesting implications concerning Mongolian stops and Mongolian learners' acquisition of Korean stops. First, Mongolian stops may have to be differentiated in the dimension of aspiration rather than voicing. Second, Mongolian learners might suffer from difficulty in production and perception of Korean three-way stops due to the L1 transfer effect of two-way Mongolian stops. (Daegu University)

Lee, Joo-Kyeong & Xue, Xiaojiao. 2013. The Effects of Non-native Listeners' L1 Backgrounds and L2 Proficiency on the Evaluation of Foreign Accent. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 38-4, 971-996. In the society of English as a lingua franca, non-native listeners have been more frequently exposed to situations where they need to evaluate non-native talkers’ L2 speech. This sheds light on bringing up several empirical questions of whether their accentedness ratings agree with those of native listeners, whether their L2 proficiency affects the extent to which the agreement occurs, and finally whether their L1 backgrounds contribute to the judgment of foreign accent. The current study attempts to answer those questions, investigating both native and non-native Chinese and Korean listeners’ perceptions of foreign accent for Chinese-accented English L2 speech. Additionally, segmental and suprasegmental acoustic measures were examined in association with accentedness ratings to find out a best predictor in the judgment of foreign accent. Results showed that non-native listeners did not agree with native listeners, except for the case that high proficiency listeners judged high proficiency talkers’ speech. This suggests that non-native listeners rated L2 speech based on their own criteria which had been established from the phonological and phonetic features existing in their interlanguages. They tended to rate L2 speech as less accented than native listeners because they had more deviant sound features in the interlanguage and created more tolerable and extended accentedness standards. In addition, we found the effects of non-native listeners’ proficiency on accentedness ratings but no effects of L1 background. Finally, suprasegmental variables were constantly correlated with the ratings but the number of segmental variables facilitating the perception of foreign accent decreased as listeners’ proficiency decreased. The suprasegmental features seemed to be easily accessible to both native and non-native listeners in comparison with segmental variables, because pitch range and speech rate were a holistic and global characteristic of speech while the processes of deletion, insertion and substitution occurred locally in a tiny portion along the temporal dimension. (University of Seoul)

Chae, Hee-Rahk & Lim, Eunsuk. 2013. An Analysis of Locative Expressions [NP-ey] and [NP-eyse] in Korean. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 38-4, 997-1026. This paper provides an analysis of Korean -ey and -eyse postpositional phrases expressing locative meanings. Their distributions and meanings exhibit so much complex properties that there are not any coherent and systematic systems to account for them. We argue that it is essential, first of all, to figure out whether these phrases are realized as complements or adjuncts in the sentence concerned. Our study is based on a typological approach of Chae (2000), which says that phrases indicating Source and Goal are mostly complements and those indicating Place/Location are mostly adjuncts. In Korean, the Source meaning is realized by the -eyse phrase, the Goal meaning by the -ey phrase, and the Location meaning by the -eyse phrase. In consideration of these facts, we provide a new analysis of their distributions and meanings. In doing so, we group the verbs which take the -ey phrase as a complement into two categories, depending on whether they implicate locomotion or not. We also factor out an unusual type of -ey phrase, which functions as a sentential adverb of “setting up a scene." (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies)

Pyo, Si-Yeon. 2013. The Optional Use of Tense Markers in the Constructionism View. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 38-4, 1027-1047. The purpose of this study paper aims to provide empirical evidence to support the Constructionism view incorporating the Minimalist Program (MP) notion by Chomsky (1995) in order to account for the phenomenon of the optional use of verbal inflectional morphemes. The results from both productive and receptive data obtained by Korean EFL learners in the context of verb-raising and adverb placement verify that L2 learners have universal syntactic knowledge on the Tense Phrase (TP) projection. However, the findings of this study reject the interpretation from the existing views of Universal Grammar (UG) because the earlier UG-based approach focuses on the initial and final states with no mention of the intermediate states. The current study argues that as for the inconsistent use of uninflected verbs, the Constructionism model (Herschensohn, 2000) provides an explanatory account reflecting L2 learners’ ongoing process of constructing L2 grammar. From the Constructionism view, it is assumed that L2 learners have difficulties in realization of morpholexical features due to incomplete mastery of the L2 lexicon despite intact TP projection and a feature-checking mechanism in L2 syntax. (Sookmyung Women’s University)

Hong, Ki-Sun. 2013. The Progressive in English and Korean. Korean Journal of Linguistics 38-4, 1049-1092. This paper attempts to compare the progressive in English and Korean from a cognitive-semantic viewpoint. It has often been assumed that the English progressive does not generally accept stative verbs whereas the Korean progressive does. Pointing out that such generalizations fail to take into full account of stative progressives in either language, this paper argues that the progressive in English and Korean can be better explained in terms of the speaker’s viewing arrangement and the duration of an event. It further argues that some pragmatic implicatures and prototypicality effects apply only to the English progressive, which accounts for major differences between the two languages. (Seoul National University)