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In:Acquisition of Korean: The state of the art
Edited by Soonja Choi
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 36] 2026
► pp. 154–186

Chapter 5
Acquisition of syntactic knowledge by monolingual Korean children

 | University of Illinois Chicago
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
This chapter presents an overview of research on the acquisition of syntactic knowledge by monolingual Korean children over the past few decades. It begins with a comprehensive review of studies classified into three areas: part-of-speech categories and grammatical relations, phrases and clauses, and the interface between syntax and other linguistic domains. The chapter then proceeds to summarize prior research on transitivity, a central concept for understanding the developmental trajectories of children’s linguistic knowledge, focusing on two construction types (active transitive, suffixal passive) and three primary structural cues that comprise these constructions (word order, case-marking, verbal morphology). In addition, the chapter identifies issues in research methodology and suggests potential directions for future investigation in the field.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Brief overview of prior research
    • 2.1Part-of-speech categories and grammatical relations
    • 2.2Phrases and clauses
    • 2.3Interface between syntax and other domains
  • 3.Acquisition of active transitive and passive constructions in Korean
    • 3.1Three structural cues: Word order, case-marking, and verbal morphology
      • 3.1.1Word order
      • 3.1.2Case-marking
      • 3.1.3Verbal morphology
      • 3.1.4Interactive roles of the three cues
    • 3.2Caregiver input and child production
  • 4.Issues in research methodology
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • Abbreviation
  • References
  • Appendix
References (148)
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