Three Types of the Intransitive Resultative Construction in English: A Generative Account

Mun-Hong Choe 한국영어학회 2023 영어학 Vol.23 No.-

Through a close examination of the grammatical constraints of English resultatives discussed in the previous literature, this study argues that morpheme-based generative accounts have more explanatory adequacy than constructional-semantic accounts. The constructional view classifies English resultatives into four syntactic varieties: transitive resultatives with a selected/unselected object and intransitive resultatives with/without an object, and considers them to comprise a family resemblance of which the core type is the caused motion-path construction (Goldberg and Jackendoff 2004). Focusing on intransitive resultatives which have been more controversial, we review a range of attested data from previous research sources and make the case that despite their resemblance, they are not identical in semantics. Specifically, we propose that there are at least three distinct types of morphosyntactic derivation: transitivized (agentive), causativized (happenstantial), copularized (extentional) resultatives, and that those with an overt object are instances of argument structure augmentation derived from the verb’s intransitive-to-transitive/causative alterations and those without an object are instances of argument structure augmentation derived from the verb’s unaccusative-to-copular extension. The discussion has led to the conclusion that the semantico-syntactic nature of intransitive resultatives can be explained more adequately by morpheme conflations than by a virtually infinite number of constructional idiosyncrasies on the basis of semantic uniformity.

Current Topics and Controversies in the Analysis of English L2 Learners’ Verb Inflection Errors

( Mun-hong Choe ),( Mi-ra Jung ) 대한언어학회 2021 언어학 Vol.29 No.1

This article provides a synthetic review of current research on English L2 learners’ acquisition of verb inflection, focusing specifically on four topic areas: tense and aspect, subject-verb agreement, lexical and auxiliary verbs, and individual differences. The primary goal is to address the question of what to consider when analyzing ungrammatical forms produced by learners. An additional goal is to gain further insights into such questions as what challenges interlanguage researchers are likely to face in the analysis of the sources of inaccurate forms and what kinds of errors can be regarded as (non-)systematic. This review results in several observations that merit further investigation. First, in the acquisition of tense-aspect morphemes, some general tendencies have been recognized, of which most notable is the fact that L2 learners’ ability to use tense-aspect morphology tends to develop gradually while form acquisition normally precedes function acquisition. Second, L2 acquisition of subject-verb agreement has been a central issue in the debate over the role and representation of the innate language faculty. Third, regarding L2 learners’ ability to discern lexical and auxiliary verbs, a prevalent UG-based argument is that the mental grammars of L2 learners are organised in the same way as those of L1 speakers and that they differ only in the nature of their lexemes for surface morphology. Finally, since verb inflectional morphology explicitly demonstrates language learners’ grammatical competence, variations in its acquisition constitute the core of inquiry into age- and L1-related factors.

Some Notes on Grammatical Categories in English and Korean: A Functional Account

( Mun Hong Choe ) 대한언어학회 2012 언어학 Vol.20 No.1

This paper discusses the nature of grammatical categories in English and Korean, giving an alternative account of some key differences between them. The goal is not so much to formulate a new theory but rather to show the syntactic mirror-image of the two languages clearly, with most ideas indebted to observations in generative grammar. It is assumed a priori that grammatical categories derive from mutual needs and the needs are represented being inherent to the lexical item when it undergoes syntactic operations. In particular, we try to deduce the EPP constraint in English on a functional basis, reasoning it out as part of a system that works closely with word order, auxiliary verbs, declaration/question formation, and adverb position.

Motivation, Strategy Use, and Self-efficacy Beliefs in Korean University Students L2 English Proficiency

Mun-Hong Choe,Jiyeong Song 한국영어학회 2017 영어학 Vol.17 No.3

English L1 and Korean Advanced EFL Learners’ Working Memory and Sentence Processing Span

Mun-Hong Choe 한국응용언어학회 2011 응용 언어학 Vol.27 No.3

This paper experimentally observes English L1 and Korean advanced EFL speakers’ sentence processing span and its relation to individual working memory capacity. To estimate one’s language-related working memory, two methods are employed: word-recall and comprehensionplus- recall. The measurement of sentence processing span refers to the number of clauses that the speaker manages to produce or comprehend at a time. Main findings are that English L1 speakers’ production is fairly stable up to 3 clauses, while Korean EFL learners can hardly repeat more than 2 clauses and that only the second type of memory capacity correlates significantly with listening and speaking span. These imply that the substantial gap between L2 production and comprehension is essentially caused by L2 learners’ underloading L2 forms while (or due to) overloading L1 conceptual and phonological representations during L2 processing, and that one’s short-term repository for discrete words per se has less to do with L2 processing than does one’s capability of parsing and chunking meaningful information from a connected string of words.

Reassessing Syntactic Accounts of English Resultative Constructions

Mun-Hong Choe(최문홍) 한국영어학회 2011 영어학 Vol.11 No.1

Visual Scene Description and Recall: On Differences between Korean and English Speakers

Mun-Hong Choe 서울대학교 언어교육원 2015 語學硏究 Vol.51 No.1

Scientific research into the relationship between language and thought has profound implications for the understanding of second language learners and their learning process. The present study focuses on the connections between verbalization patterns and perceptual orientations. Adult monolingual speakers of Korean and English were asked to describe a set of dynamic scenes at two different presentation durations, 1.5 and 3 seconds, and then recall the focal figures and backgrounds of the depicted situations. Participants’ utterances were counted for comparison with their performance on the subsequent recall test. The study found that Korean speakers (KSs) mentioned more specific subjects at longer durations whereas English speakers’ (ESs) choice of subject referents was not significantly influenced by time. Further, in contrast to previous research, ESs produced more background details than KSs and were inclined to add more descriptions about figures at longer durations while dismissing a commensurate amount of background information. In the recall test, KSs remembered background details more accurately than ESs. This asymmetry in linguistic encoding and recall in function of presentation durations suggests that the effect of a particular language on the language speakers’ attentional allocation and information storing is far more intricate than was reported in earlier works.

A Minimalist Account of Case Marking in Korean Long Form Negation Constructions

( Mun Hong Choe ) 한국현대언어학회 2011 언어연구 Vol.27 No.2

This study provides a theoretical account for the distributive patterns of case markers attached to the nominalizer -ci in Korean long-form negation (LFN) along the lines of the minimalist program. In LFN, the nominalized phrase headed by -ci may optionally take a case that functions as an emphatic marker. It can be either the accusative case (ACC) or the nominative case (NOM) when the verb is unaccusative or passive, whereas it cannot but be ACC when the verb is unergative or transitive. I argue that the negation verb, anh, bears an empty θ-grid that must be specified by a content verb via Agree, so whether its θ-grid extends to v is determined by the main verb. It is suggested that case marking in LFN involves feature checking by Negv and INFL, with the value depending on the assigner: ACC by Negv and NOM by INFL. Applying the Phase Impenetrability Condition and the related notions such as φ-completeness and Phase strength, I submit that the variability in question arises because NPs that are eligible to Agree with the EPP feature of Negv differ by construction.

Morphosyntactic Correlates for Simple Sentence Production in English and Korean

Mun-Hong Choe 한국언어학회 2012 언어 Vol.37 No.1

Detecting Gender-biased Items in English Listening Tests: A Methodological Demonstration

Mun-Hong Choe(최문홍) 학습자중심교과교육학회 2019 학습자중심교과교육연구 Vol.19 No.19

이 연구는 성별에 따른 차별기능문항을 추출하는 방법과 해석 절차를 예시할 목적으로 중학교 영어듣기평가 문항을 분석하였다. 중학교 영어듣기평가는 1991년부터 EBS 교육방송을 통해 매년 두 차례 전국 규모로 실시되는 시험으로서 총 20개의 사지선다형 문항으로 구성되어 있으며, 친숙한 주제의 짧은 담화를 듣고 이해할 수 있는 능력을 측정한다. 분석 에 필요한 자료는 대도시 소재 공립 중학교 1학년 학생 875명에게서 수집하였다(남학생 450명, 여학생 425명). 특정 이론이나 방법의 편향성을 중화시키기 위해 전통적인 방법인 멘텔-헨젤 검정과 로지스틱 회귀분석에 더해 두 가지 문항반응이론에 입각한 방법을 함께 사용하였다. 그 결과 두 개의 균일적 차별 기능 문항과 두 개의 비균일적 차별 기능 문항이 발견되었다. 뒤이은 내용 분석은 담화의 주제가 성별에 따른 유불리 조건을 발생시킬 가능성이 가장 높은 원인임을 밝혔다. 이와 같은 발견에 근거하여 외국어 듣기 평가의 문항 개발에 대한 함의와 앞으로의 연구 방향을 논의하였다. This study aims to illustrate a psychometric and interpretive procedure for detecting gender-biased items in a standardized English listening comprehension test for secondary school students. The target test, which has been administered nationwide twice a year through Education Broadcast System since 1991, is composed of 20 multiple-choice items designed to assess students ability to understand monologic and dialogic spoken discourses about a range of familiar topics. Data for analysis were collected from 875 first-year students in a middle school (450 male, 425 female). In order to avoid theory-laden and method-contingent results, two classical (M-H and logistic regression) and two IRT-based methods (Rasch and IRTLRDIF) were employed in parallel. The final phase of analysis identified two uniform and two non-uniform items that functioned unequally by gender. The follow-up content analysis revealed that conversation topics were the most likely cause of the bias. Some implications for item development and fairness in the assessment of foreign language listening ability and directions of future research are discussed on the basis of the findings.