Korean L2 Overpassivization of Unaccusative Verbs: Focusing on the Relative Effects of Linguistic and Cognitive Factors

Abstract

This paper examines how linguistic and cognitive factors play roles in Korean learners` overpassivization with English unaccusative verbs. It has been reported in L2 literature that overpassivization with English unaccusative verbs are prevalent among Korean learners as well as learners from various L1 backgrounds (Balcom, 1997; Hwang, 1999, 2001; Ju, 2000; Oshita, 2000, 2001; Yip, 1994, 1995; Zobl, 1989). The causes of this phenomenon have been analyzed predominantly from the syntactic view by many researchers (Balcom, 1997; Oshita, 2000; Yip, 1994; Zobl, 1989). However, as different error patterns have been observed among different unaccusative verbs in terms of overpassivization in recent studies, SLA researchers have tried to relate this phenomenon to diverse factors (Croft, 1995; Ju, Montrul, 1999, 2000, 2001; No & Chung, 2006). In this regard, this study chose to examine the following three factors as major sources affecting overpassivization in the L2 literature: verb alternation, subject animacy, and context type representing not only linguistic but also cognitive fields. In addition to analyzing the main effects of these factors on Korean L2 learners` overpassivization, this study also attempts to examine if there exist any relative effects among them. A grammaticality judgment task was administered to a group of 70 Korean college participants. The results of the GJT showed that all of the three factors above had considerable effects on overpassivization with English unaccusative verbs by Korean L2 learners. When d­values of the three factors were calculated to compare their relative effects, the context type factor was found to have the strongest effect.