Acquisition of Korean reflexive caki by Chinese-speaking learners.

Abstract

This study investigated the acquisition of the Korean reflexive `caki` by Chinese learners of Korean using a picture-sentence verification task. Korean and Chinese reflexives are different from the English reflexive `-self` in that long distance binding interpretation is allowed (e.g., Maryi thinks that Susanj likes herselfi/j), whereas it is not in English (e.g., Maryi thinks that Susanj likes herself*i/j). However, the Korean reflexive `caki` is different from the Chinese reflexive `ziji` in terms of its preferred interpretation: long distance binding interpretation is more preferred to local binding in Korean, whereas it is the opposite in Chinese. This study focused on how Chinese learners of Korean understand `caki` in Korean compared to Korean native speakers. The results of an experiment based on a picture-sentence verification task with 31 learners (13 intermediate and 18 advanced) and 30 native controls showed that learners accepted local binding interpretation about 70% of the time regardless of their level of general proficiency, whereas native speakers accepted it only 50% of the time. The results indicate the influence of L1 transfer. Other possible influential factors were also discussed such as length of learning and length of residence. (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Cyber Hankuk University of Foreign Studies)