Morphosyntactic Correlates for Simple Sentence Production in English and Korean
최문홍 · Korean Journal of Linguistics · 2012
In this study, we experimentally demonstrate that the mechanisms underlying sentence production are contingent on the morphosyntax of a language. We reason that since the subject in English is denoted by reference to tense while it is normally by an overt case marker in Korean, English message formation and linguistic encoding center on verb features, whereas Korean speakers elect a subject first and then draw a predicate. We have conducted an experiment on the hypotheses that (a) English L1 speakers are disposed to make sentences based on verbal information; (b) In contrast, Korean L1 speakers would start utterance once they identify a subject; (c) Korean L1 patterns would be persistent in their L2 English processing. The results and some implications for language learning are discussed.