Korean EFL Learners' Processing of English Caused-Motion Construction

Abstract

The present study explores how Korean English learners process English caused motion constructions (CMC) through online and offline experimental studies.

As has been widely observed since Talmy (1995), the lexicalization patterns of motion events show considerable variations across languages. For instance, English, an S-framed language, builds verbs of motion by bundling motion with the accompanying manner and indicating path with a satellite, whereas Korean, a V-framed language, bundles motion with the accompanying path in a verb position. Based on this typological difference, the present study hypothesizes that Korean English learners will show different patterns in processing English CMCs with manner verbs due to their typological differences.

Of the 82 volunteer participants recruited, 19 were native English speakers and 63 were Korean EFL learners. The Korean learners were divided into two groups according to their English proficiency: an advanced group (A group) and a lowintermediate group (L group). Two types of experimental studies were conducted to investigate Korean English learners processing of the construction. The first online processing study was comprised of a self-paced reading (SPR) and a sentence completion task (SCT). The offline processing study included an acceptability judgment task (AJT) and a translation task.

The results of the online study showed that the Korean learners were insensitive to the satellite, but showed similar time-processing patterns with path and transitive manner verbs in the SPR. They showed further difficulty in combining a process event and a result event with intransitive manner verbs in the SCT.

In the offline study of the AJT, the Korean leaners rarely accepted the CMCs with intransitive manner verbs, but, conversely, easily accepted the causative verb + by phrase structures with the same verb type. When the sentences employed in the AJT were asked to be translated into Korean, the low-intermediate Korean learners were likely to drop the result meaning and interpret the preposition phrase as a location rather than a goal.

In sum, Korean learners showed similar patterns to native English speakers in processing path verbs (Type 1, e.g., put, take), and transitive manner verbs (Type 2, e.g., pull, push). However, they showed different pattern in processing intransitive manner verbs (Type 3, e.g., sneeze, dance).

In conclusion, the CMCs in English and Korean differ syntactically and semantically, and Korean learners processing of English CMC was heavily influenced by their L1 when the construction accompanied intransitive manner verbs, implying a limitation of their constructional knowledge.