Korean Speakers' Knowledge of the Role of the Cardinality of Objects in the Computation of Telicity in English

Eunjeong Oh 고려대학교 언어정보연구소 2015 언어정보 Vol.21 No.-

This paper examines Korean speakers' knowledge of semantic computation of telicity in English. Precisely, it addresses the question of whether Korean learners are aware that telicity in English is encoded by the cardinality of objects. To this end, six different types of object NPs were used: eat an apple/the apple/two apples/a piece of cake/apples/cake. Only the first four objects of specified cardinality make a predicate telic. Results of a temporal modification test show that Korean learners have largely acquired that telicity in English relies on the cardinality of objects; crucially, they were able to accept the telic predicates but to reject the atelic predicates with the in X time adverbial. However, they failed to make the telic-atelic distinction regarding the event cancellation test, incorrectly accepting the telic predicates with the continuation denoting the cancelled event. It is argued that this fluctuation is attributable to L1 transfer. The transferred properties of Korean perfectives (i.e., partial completion interpretations) overrode their developing knowledge of telicity in English.

한국어 동사의 종결성(telicity)에 대한 연구

김천학 ( Cheon Hak Kim ) 서강대학교 언어정보연구소 2014 언어와 정보 사회 Vol.21 No.-

In this paper, I will examine how to apply the telicity on Korean aspectual studies. The term ‘telic’ means that a verb has a terminal point as the original feature. Telicity is a very important study on the aspectual thesis, because the sentence meaning can be changed according to the telicity. This paper has three interesting foci. First, I will examine the verbal class depending on the telicity. Second, I will research into the cases how to change the telicity according to the arguments in the sentences. Finally, I will research into the function of the telicity on the aspectual studies in Korean. It is important to know that the main function of the telicity on the aspectual studies, because it can lead to the representation of the sentences.

Syntactic Bootstrapping in Korean Speakers` Acquisition of Telicity in English: Link between Transitivity and Telicity

( Eunjeong Oh ) 21세기영어영문학회 2015 영어영문학21 Vol.28 No.3

This paper explores the transitivity bootstrapping hypothesis as a guide for determining telicity in English with Korean speakers. It hypothesizes that telic interpretations are linked to transitive frames and atelic ones to intransitive frames. The predicted pattern of acquisition is that the Korean participants would make errors with atelic transitives and telic intransitives since they are not supported by the hypothesis. The results show that they made the relevant distinction between telic and atelic items for three out of the four transitivity-telicity pairs, failing to do so for telic intransitives. These mistakes with telic intransitives are precisely the pattern predicted by the hypothesis. It confirms that the syntactic bootstrapping hypothesis is part of the acquisition toolkit exploited by L2 learners. As for the puzzle of why telic intransitives, but not atelic transitives, were particularly vulnerable to transitivity bias, it is argued to be best explained by the Surface Generalization Hypothesis and prototypicality of telic transitive frames for telicity.

Marking Telicity Via Transfer

Kyumin Kim 한국중원언어학회 2016 언어학연구 Vol.0 No.40

An Asp(ect) head has generally been viewed as a locus of telicity. This paper shows that in some languages, Asp is not specified for telicity, based on the properties of aspectual suffixes in Korean. It argues that with the aspectual suffixes, telicity is marked on another functional head (F) that appears above Asp. In particular, F is realized by different aspectual suffixes that indicate whether there is an initiator of an event, and only in the presence of these suffixes is the telicity of a given event determined. In theoretical terms, thus, Asp is not specified for a feature such as [telic], but F, a higher head than Asp, is. It is argued that [utelic] on F is transferred to Asp so that Asp can identify telicity in a local configuration similar to C-to-T [uφ] feature transfer. Via transfer of [utelic] on F to Asp, a relevant DP in the c-commanding domain of Asp can check [utelic] locally, just as checking [uφ] on T can be locally achieved via transfer of [uφ] on C to T.

Korean EFL Learners' Acquisition of Telicity in Locatum Structures

Jung-Tae Kim 한국영어학학회 2015 영어학연구 Vol.21 No.3

The present study investigated Korean EFL learners' sensitivity to English telicity in two different kinds of structures, namely the simple telicity construction and the locatum telicity construction. Fifty-six Korean EFL learners and fifteen English native speakers participated in a naturalness rating task which was designed to find out whether the structure involving overt movement of the underlying object (locatum construction) works differently from the structure involving covert movement(simple construction) for the learners' recognition of L2 telicity. The results showed that although Korean learners generally failed to acquire native-like competence for telic-atelic distinction, they had less difficulty with the locatum construction than with the simple construction in recognizing English telicity. These results were interpreted as showing that Korean EFL learners' sensitivity to English telicity could vary according to the type of syntactic operation adopted to carry the aspectual information.

The Acquisition and Interpretation of English Telicity by Korean Speakers

Eun jeong Oh 한국영어학학회 2015 영어학연구 Vol.21 No.1

This paper examines Korean speakers' knowledge of telicity in English and, precisely, whether they are aware that entire predicates pertain to telicity computation and that the semantic contribution of elements attached under VP to telicity depends on their endpoint specification. These questions are explored by Korean speakers' telicity interpretation of three constructions: (i) an activity plus a locative PP, (ii) an activity plus a goal PP, and (iii) an activity plus a direct object. They contrast in terms of telicity: the first construction is atelic while the other two are telic. The results show that Korean learners are largely able to differentiate the telic from the atelic interpretation. Interestingly, intermediate learners recognized the telic reading of the third construction but not of the second one. It is argued that this discrepancy is best explained by L1-transfer. Unlike the third construction, which involves matched semantics and syntax, the second construction is associated with matched semantics but with mismatched syntax between Korean and English−viz. the difference in the syntactic representations of the construction.

Korean Speakers' Knowledge of the Role of the Cardinality of Objects in the Computation of Telicity in English

오은정 고려대학교 언어정보연구소 2015 언어정보 Vol.0 No.21

This paper examines Korean speakers' knowledge of semantic computation of telicity in English. Precisely, it addresses the question of whether Korean learners are aware that telicity in English is encoded by the cardinality of objects. To this end, six different types of object NPs were used: eat an apple/the apple/two apples/a piece of cake/apples/cake. Only the first four objects of specified cardinality make a predicate telic. Results of a temporal modification test show that Korean learners have largely acquired that telicity in English relies on the cardinality of objects; crucially, they were able to accept the telic predicates but to reject the atelic predicates with the in X time adverbial. However, they failed to make the telic-atelic distinction regarding the event cancellation test, incorrectly accepting the telic predicates with the continuation denoting the cancelled event. It is argued that this fluctuation is attributable to L1 transfer. The transferred properties of Korean perfectives (i.e., partial completion interpretations) overrode their developing knowledge of telicity in English.

Syntactic Bootstrapping in Korean Speakers’ Acquisition of Telicity in English: Link between Transitivity and Telicity

오은정 21세기영어영문학회 2015 영어영문학21 Vol.28 No.3

This paper explores the transitivity bootstrapping hypothesis as a guide for determining telicity in English with Korean speakers. It hypothesizes that telic interpretations are linked to transitive frames and atelic ones to intransitive frames. The predicted pattern of acquisition is that the Korean participants would make errors with atelic transitives and telic intransitives since they are not supported by the hypothesis. The results show that they made the relevant distinction between telic and atelic items for three out of the four transitivity-telicity pairs, failing to do so for telic intransitives. These mistakes with telic intransitives are precisely the pattern predicted by the hypothesis. It confirms that the syntactic bootstrapping hypothesis is part of the acquisition toolkit exploited by L2 learners. As for the puzzle of why telic intransitives, but not atelic transitives, were particularly vulnerable to transitivity bias, it is argued to be best explained by the Surface Generalization Hypothesis and prototypicality of telic transitive frames for telicity.

An experimental investigation of event telicity in Korean

김규민 경희대학교 언어정보연구소 2023 언어연구 Vol.40 No.1

In Korean, either specific quantity or definiteness of an object is recognized to be associated with event telicity. However, there has been no clear account on which property is a crucial factor for telicity. This study conducted an acceptability judgment experiment testing to identify what property of an object is associated with telicity of an event VP under the conditions which differ by the presence or absence of the time adverbials (-maney ‘in x time’ and -dongan ‘for x time’). 30 Korean native speakers were given target sentences with multiple choices to select, and the choices were made based on the potential interpretations of the sentences with different types of objects such as a bare noun or numeral classifier object. The target sentences also differ in the presence or absence of the time adverbials, i.e., -maney or -dongan adverbial. The results suggested that contrary to the current literature definiteness may not play a role in event telicity. As for specific quantity, it is not a necessary property of an object, but mere quantity of an object is found to be sufficient for a telic interpretation of an event. The results also showed that -dongan adverbials can have time span meaning not only with numeral classifier objects but also with bare noun objects.

Marking Telicity Via Transfer: A Case Study of Korean Aspectual Suffixes

김규민 한국중원언어학회 2016 언어학연구 Vol.0 No.40

An Asp(ect) head has generally been viewed as a locus of telicity. This paper shows that in some languages, Asp is not specified for telicity, based on the properties of aspectual suffixes in Korean. It argues that with the aspectual suffixes, telicity is marked on another functional head (F) that appears above Asp. In particular, F is realized by different aspectual suffixes that indicate whether there is an initiator of an event, and only in the presence of these suffixes is the telicity of a given event determined. In theoretical terms, thus, Asp is not specified for a feature such as [telic], but F, a higher head than Asp, is. It is argued that [utelic] on F is transferred to Asp so that Asp can identify telicity in a local configuration similar to C-to-T [uφ] feature transfer. Via transfer of [utelic] on F to Asp, a relevant DP in the c-commanding domain of Asp can check [utelic] locally, just as checking [uφ] on T can be locally achieved via transfer of [uφ] on C to T.