The Typological Patterns of Motion Events in English and Korean
: with Focus on the Errors of Korean EFL Learners in their English Compostion
Jeongsuk Son
Department of English Language and Literature
Graduate School, Kyungpook National Unive...
The Typological Patterns of Motion Events in English and Korean
: with Focus on the Errors of Korean EFL Learners in their English Compostion
Jeongsuk Son
Department of English Language and Literature
Graduate School, Kyungpook National University
Daegu, Korea
(Supervised by Professor Im, Sung-Chool)
(Abstract)
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the different lexicalization patterns of motion events in English and Korean, and to find out the correlations between the differences and the errors Korean EFL learners may make in their English composition, based on this analysis.
The participants in this study were 68 Korean middle school students. The questionnaires for this study consisted of three parts : Korean grammaticality judgment tasks, English composition tasks, and English preference tasks.
The findings of this study are as follows.
First, Korean students learning English make errors of using complex verbs and deitic verbs most in the descriptions of motion events. It can be explained by the different lexicalization patterns between Korean and English. In Korean, motion events are usually expressed with complex motion verbs and manner or cause is expressed separately. However, English conflates manner or cause with motion in verb roots. And deitic verbs are usually used as main verbs in Korean.
Second, Korean students showed errors related to prepositions. In English, path elements such as prepositions or particles are obligatory in the descriptions
of the motion events. In Korean, however, they are included in motion verbs. Thus Korean students often pay less attention to prepositions or particles.
Third, Korean students are likely to use complex verbs and the present progressive in the descriptions of fictive motion events. Complex motion verbs combined with deitic verbs can be used to express fictive motion in Korean, whereas simplex motion verbs such as go and run are used in English. Furthermore, while the present progressive is not allowed in the descriptions of fictive motion events in English, it is allowed in Korean.
Fourth, it affects the choice of the verb Korean students use whether the Korean sentences given for English composition are expressed in stative verbs or motion verbs. Nevertheless, Korean students tend to prefer stative verbs to motion verbs in fictive motion.
This research shows that Korean EFL learners tend to transfer the lexicalization pattern from Korean to English. Korean lexicalizes the components of motion events differently from English, and the errors in English composion by Korean students are attributed to these different lexicalization patterns. In addition, the observation in this research provides strong evidence for Talmy's lexicalization patterns of motion events, and for the effect of the lexicalization patterns of native language on second language learning.
，韩语毕业论文，韩语论文题目 |
