This study examines second language (L2) learners' knowledge and sensitivity to case alternation construction among Korean sentences. The target constructions that were used in the study were intransitive verb sentence, transitive verb sentence, causative construction, and cognitive verb sentence. The intransitive verb sentence and transitive verb sentence do not allow case alternation in subject but the causative construction and cognitive verb sentence do allow their subject to alternate between nominative and accusative under certain linguistic condition. The study conducted the acceptability judgment task and self-paced reading tasks with 30 Korean speakers and 30 highly proficient Japanese-speaking learners of Korean. In the acceptability judgment task, where participants read a sentence and choose their acceptability judgment among four scales between very acceptable and very acceptable. Both of Korean native speakers and Japanese L1 learners of Korean did not show significant difference in their acceptability judgment of the sentences. However, in the self-paced reading task, where participants read Korean constructions whose case markers were manipulated either nominative markers or accusative markers, only the Korean speakers, but not the Japanese L1 learners of Korean, slowed down when the case marking was correct. These results suggest that the use of case marking knowledge during processing of Korean sentences remains a considerable challenge for L2 learners.

Authors:
Sun Hee Park, Ewha Womans University, South Korea

About the Presenter(s)
Dr SUN HEE PARK is a University Professor/Principal Lecturer at Ewha Womans University in South Korea

See this presentation on the full schedule – Friday Schedule

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