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Article published In: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 15:5 (2025) ► pp.662–687

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Second language acquisition of morphosyntactic and discourse functions of case markers in Korean

ORCiD logo with link | Yonsei University
ORCiD logo with link | Ewha Womans University
Published online: 5 July 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.23020.kim
Abstract
This study investigated the extent to which second language (L2) learners experience difficulties when integrating multiple sources of information at internal and external interfaces, and how their first language (L1) influences this integration process. Two groups of L2 Korean learners, including Chinese and Japanese speakers, as well as native Korean speakers, completed a sentence-completion task and an acceptability judgment task. In the sentence-completion task, both native speakers and Japanese-speaking learners showed sensitivity to the function of case marking in distinct syntactic structures (morphology – syntax interface or internal interface), but not Chinese-speaking learners. In the acceptability judgment task, only the native speakers exhibited sensitivity to the discourse functions of case marking based on information structure (morphology – discourse interface or external interface), whereas the L2 learners did not appear to be influenced by the case-marking condition. These findings suggest that L2 integration of multiple information sources may be influenced by specific types of interfaces and L1 background.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Interaction between case marking and syntactic information in Korean complex clauses
  • 3.Interaction between information structure and the choice of nominative and topic marking in the multiple subject construction in Korean
  • 4.Present study
  • 5.Experiment 1: Sentence-completion task
    • 5.1Participants
    • 5.2Materials and procedure
    • 5.3Results
  • 6.Experiment 2: Acceptability judgment task
    • 6.1Participants
    • 6.2Materials and procedure
    • 6.3Results
  • 7.Discussion
    • 7.1L2 acquisition of the morphology – syntax interface
    • 7.2L2 acquisition of the syntax – discourse interface
    • 7.3The roles of interface types and L1 properties
    • 7.4Limitations and suggestions for further studies
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Competing interests declaration
  • Data availability
  • Note
  • Abbreviations in the glosses are as follows
  • References
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