Earticle

This paper concerns about how Old English constructions are derived from definitions such as LCA, specificity and C-features(V2) in the minimalist framework (Chomsky 2005, 2006). There are 5 sentence patterns in Old English, which makes it difficult to set up the basic clause structure. Having presented arguments against the existing analyses such as the OV approach or the VO approach or the head parameter approach, this paper argues, on a variety of grounds, that 5 sentence patterns in Old English are actually derived from the interaction of minimalist definitions such as LCA, Specificity and C-features. Assuming Old English clause structure to be a single VP structure like [VP V ...] and modal verbs and main verbs in Old English to be occupied in the same V-position, I show that 5 construction patterns in Old English are the results from the interactions of LCA(which makes modal verbs or main verbs move out of VP), V's specificity(which makes pronouns (object) raise to VP Spec) and C-features (which make objects to move to CP Spec). (Young San University)

Developments from ‘take’ into instrumental (Matsumoto 1998), from instrumental to clausal connectives (Genetti 1991), and from comitative to instrumental (Lakoff and Johnson 1980) are cross-linguistically common, and previous studies all invoked metaphoric explanations, such as localism and image-schemata. Using diachronic corpus data, this study investigates the grammaticalization of the Korean kaciko ‘take,’ which followed these common patterns of development. This study demonstrates that the instrumental and connective functions emerged by semanticization of pragmatic inference in local discourse contexts, in which ‘take’ is followed by verbs of locomotion and construed as accompanitive/comitative ‘with.’ This article reiterates the importance of usage-based factors such as frequency and discourse context in the emergence of grammar.

The status of glides in Korean has been a long-debated issue in the literature. Two main camps have arisen from the study of the glides: one advocates placing glides in the onset of the syllable and the other claims that the nucleus is the locus of glides. In this article we argue that the main cause of the controversy is the fact that glides are actually floating features that may link to the left or the right, depending on the context and some basic principles of association. Floating features are already well motivated in Korean in order to account for aspiration and tensification, so this analysis simply extends the principles already established. This provides us with a more succinct account of glides than previously proposed

The present study aims at investigating the effect of Korean word frequency and phonological change in language disorder. Several types of aphasics showing Broca's aphasia, anomia, and verbal apraxia participated in this experiment. In experiment 1, we used the naming task related to word reading. Differently from the presence of the frequency effect in normal controls, the effect in word reading task showed different pattern across the aphasics. Moreover the phonological effect appeared to be inconsistent over the patients. Experiment 2 using lexical decision task also examined the effects just mentioned in Experiment 1 together with the effects according to types of nonwords. The first result in using word stimuli showed the dissociation between the effects of frequency and phonological change in aphasics in contrast to the normal subjects showing the phonological effect only in case of low frequency word. The second result of lexical decision time applied in pure-nonword and homonymous-nonword according to the presence or absence of phonological change showed different patterns across the aphasic patients. These results suggest that the strategies for the lexical decision in aphasics revealed the biasedness of lexical-addressed route irrespective of frequency and phonological change factors, whereas phonological-assembled route can be used for the nonwords as did in normal controls.

This research explores how English words were borrowed, integrated, and translated into Korean in the period of the late-19th and early-20th centuries as a study of contact linguistics. It first examines types of loanwords in terms of semantics, applying the semantic theory of Saussure. Examination of the foreign language data in that period shows that English loanwords are divided into two broad types: (i) indirect borrowing via Chinese or Japanese, and (ii) direct borrowing and adopting into Korean. Indirect borrowing was done by adopting loanwords already translated into Chinese or Japanese. Such loanwords were pronounced in Korean-Chinese reading. Direct borrowing was done by transcribing directly English words into Korean. This study shows some characteristics of English loanwords in the late-19th and early-20th centuries: (i) discrepancy between Korean and English due to different phonological systems, (ii) phonetic transcription, (iii) inconsistency and variations in transcription, (iv) spelling transcription, and (v) mixed transcription of British and American Englishes. Finally, this research shows that such problems are not limited to the loanwords in the late-19th and early-20th centuries but they are persistent in traslating and adopting recently borrowed English words into Korean.

This experimental study investigated the generalization of relative clause instruction in foreign language learning. Three groups of Korean middle school students were given an hour formal instruction in the formation of one type of English relative clauses (i.e., subject, direct object, or object of preposition). Another group that served as a control group received no instruction in relative clause formation. Statistical analyses of pretest and post-test results showed first that the experimental groups significantly improved in the scores on the formation of relatives targeted in instruction and that instruction in more complex relatives resulted in generalization to uninstructed less complex relatives, and not reverse. Also the results suggested that the difficulty of genitive relatives was decided by the structural distance between the gap and the head.

This study examines the comprehension of English idioms by Korean learners by addressing the following two questions: (i) Does decomposability also play a role in L2 idiom comprehension? (ii) Which has a stronger influence on L2 idiom comprehension ― decomposability (lexical aspect) or conceptual metaphor (conceptual aspect)? L1 processing studies have investigated whether decomposable idioms (i.e., idioms whose individual semantic components contribute to their overall figurative meanings) are processed faster than nondecomposable idioms. Psycholinguistic studies have also shown that people’s tacit knowledge of conceptual metaphors such as LIFE IS A JOURNEY partly motivates how they make sense of idioms like be over the hill. Previous studies, however, did not test both hypotheses simultaneously. The present study attempts to fill this research niche with L2 data using an off-line English-to-Korean translation task. It is assumed that idioms motivated by conceptual metaphors that exist both in L1 and L2 are easier for L2 learners to comprehend than those that don’t. The results support the hypothesis that decomposable idioms are processed more easily than nondecomposable ones. That is, decomposability plays a role not only in L1 idiom processing but also in L2 idiom comprehension. With regard to the second research question, the results showed that the role of conceptual metaphors is more significant than the effect of decomposability. The contribution of the present study lies in the fact that it synthesizes both linguistic and conceptual aspects of idioms. The pedagogical implication is that L2 learners get benefits from the conceptual aspects of idioms and therefore do not always have to resort to rote learning.

Since the focus on linguistic competence shifted to communicative competence, extensive research has examined L2 learners’ performance of speech acts including refusals. As refusals are considered a major cross-cultural sticking point for many nonnative speakers, active research has been conducted on the refusal patterns of these speakers. However, few studies have investigated refusal speech acts of Korean English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The few existing studies failed to account for different social values and norms of cultures when investigating refusal speech acts. The current study aimed to examine pragmatic transfer of L1 in the refusal speech act realizations of Korean EFL learners. Furthermore, the study examined the role of social distance in carrying out refusal speech acts by Korean EFL learners and native English speakers. Results showed both similarities and differences in refusal strategy use by Korean EFL learners and native English speakers, but more distinct differences between the two groups were evident in the use of refusal strategies. Sociocultural values and norms embedded in Korean culture were also found to be present in Korean EFL learners’ speech act performances.

This study analyzes tensification in Korean within the framework of Optimality Theory with candidate chains (McCarthy 2007a, 2007b, 2007c). Two important issues are addressed in this paper. The first is that Korean displays more than one type of tensification: post-obstruent tensification, compound tensification, Sino-Korean tensification, modifier tensification, and predicate tensification (Kim 1970; Lee 1972; Kim-Renaud 1974; Chung 1980; Ahn 1985, 1998, 2002; Oh 1987, 1988). The second is that some Korean tensification phenomena are characterized by counterbleeding opacity in which the triggers are invisible in the surface structure. Given this, the present study proposes that in spite of such complexity diverse types of tensification can be accounted for by post-obstruent tensification. This approach reveals that a latent feature (FTENSE) exists and thus entails tensification. For Optimality Theory with candidate chains, the precedence constraint PRECEDENCE (IDENTITY-[tense], MAX) can account for counterbleeding in tensification.