A study of the acquisition of English tense and aspect by L1 Korean speakers with focus on morphosyntactic and lexico-semantic issues Seon Young Kim

The differences between Korean and English in terms of tense and aspect (TA)

1. While English has clear formal marking for present and present progressive, Korean has the only formal

marking ‘(nu)n’ for present and present progressive.

Minjaka pianolul chinda. Minja plays the piano/ Minja is playing the piano.

2. While English has clear formal marking for perfect and imperfect, Korean has no special marking for perfect

and impeferfect.

Minjaka mak ttunassassta. Minja had just left. (Past Perfect)

kekurika nuwa issassta. The frog was lying. (Past Imperfect)

3. In Korean time adverbial is more important than English for distinguishing present and present progressive.

Minjanun kongbu hanta. Minja studies.

Minjanun jikum kongbu hanta. Minja is studying now.

4. While English distinguishes state verbs from other verbs, Korean has no state verbs (for example, ‘see’, ‘like’,

‘hate’, ‘be happy’, ‘be sad’ and etc are active verbs).

The Primacy of Aspect (POA)

L1 and L2 learners, in the early stage of acquiring verbal morphology, use tense-aspect markers selectively according

to the inherent lexical aspect of the verb to which the tense-aspect marker is attached or with which it is associated.

Evidence for the Primacy of Aspect

past and perfect tense morphology achievements→accomplishments→activities→states

progressive aspect marker -ing activities→accomplishments→achievements

(※no overextension to state verbs)

3rd person singular present tense marker -s states→activities→accomplishments→achievements

The Vendlrean Four-Way Classification

Lexical aspectual classes Accomplishments Achievements

Semantic features States Activities (Telic events) (Punctual events)

Punctual - - - +

Telic - - + +

Dynamic - + + +

Research Questions

1. What effect do formal marking have on the L2 learners’ acquisition of English tense and aspect?

1a. Do Korean learners whose L1 has only formal marking ‘(n)un’ for present and present progressive

distinguish English present and present progressive which have clear distinction in their forms?

1b. Do Korean learners whose L1 has no special marking for perfective aspect and imperfective aspect

distinguish English perfective aspect and imperfective aspect?

1c. If Korean learners don’t distinguish English TA, is it the effect of their L1 or other factors (time

adverbial, context, etc.)?

2. How much does inherent lexical aspect affect on L2 learners’ acquisition of English tense and aspect?

2a. Do Korean learners whose L1 has no stative verbs follow the Primacy of Aspect for the acquisition of

English TA?

2b. If Korean learners don’t follow POA, is it the effect of their L1 or other factors (time adverbial, context,

etc.)?

Test Methodology

1. The study has tested 3 Korean Ph.D. students and 3 Korean undergraduates in Lancaster University with

five basic English inflectional verb forms (VØ, Ving, Vs, Ved, Virreg) across the four traditional

Vendlerian inherent aspect classes (states, activities, accomplishments, achievements) with English TA

interpretation test.

2. To compare the interpretation with their real speaking production, the study has also tested them with

English TA production test.

3. For the purpose of reference for subjects, data has also been collected from their English grammar

proficiency test and interviewing them about their language background.

4. To have a base line for the English TA interpretation test, three natives have been tested with the same

interpretation test with Korean students.

English TA Interpretation Test Results

1. In terms of grammatical sentences of states Korean students’ responses are on the whole similar with natives’.

grammatical sentences/ states in simplepresent

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grammatical sentences/ states in - ing

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2. In terms of grammatical sentences of activities Korean students’ responses are on the whole similar with natives’.

grammatical sentences/ acti vi ties insimple past

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grammatical sentences/ acti vi ties in- ing

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3. In terms of grammatical sentences of achievements Korean students’ responses are on the whole similar with natives’.

grammatical sentences/ achievements insimple present

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grammatical sentences/ achievements in- ing

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4. In terms of grammatical sentences of accomplishments Korean students’ responses are on the whole similar with

natives’ in simple present and simple past, but show difference of degree in progressive sentences even though all of them are positive.

grammatical sentences/accompl ishments in simple past

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grammatical sentences/accompl i shments in - ing

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Problematic Ones in test results

1. In terms of ungrammatical sentences of states while Korean students’ responses are on the whole similar with

natives in progressive forms, several Korean students’ responses are different with natives in simple past.

ungrammatical sentences/ states in - ing

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ungrammatical sentences/ states insimple past

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2. In terms of ungrammatical sentences of activities while Korean students’ responses are on the whole similar

with natives’ in progressive forms, several their responses are different with natives’ in simple present.

ungrammatical sentences/ activi ti es in- ing

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ungrammatical sentences/ activi ti es insimple present

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3. In terms of ungrammatical sentences of accomplishments Korean students’ responses are clearly different from

natives’.

ungrammatical sentences/accompl ishments in simple present

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ungrammatical sentences/accompl ishments in simple past

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4. Two Korean Ph.D. students (NN2, NN3) whose grammar proficiency are most advanced among 6 subjects show

different responses compared with natives and other Koreans.

ungrammatical sentences/ activi ti es insimple present

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