Journal Article

Dominant language influence in acquisition and attrition of binding: Interpretation of the Korean reflexive caki

MONTRUL, SILVINA, KIM, JI-HYE, YOON, JAMES

2010

Overview

This study investigates how the dominant language of Korean heritage speakers (English) influences Korean (minority language) in the domain of binding interpretations by comparing the performance of Korean immigrants in English dominant context with that of incomplete learners of Korean and L2 learners of Korean. Four groups (10 Korean immigrants, 17 simultaneous bilinguals, 14 late L2 learners, and 30 Korean native speakers) were tested. Differences between English and Korean in Governing Category and structural constraints were tested through a Truth Value Judgment Task with stories. Overall results showed that Korean immigrants (attriters) did not differ from Korean controls, while simultaneous bilinguals (incomplete learners) and late L2 learners of Korean showed behavior different from Korean control when two languages were different in their binding properties.

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Subject: Adults / Asian cultural groups / Attrition / Attrition (Research Studies) / Bilingual people / Bilingualism / Binding / Comparative Analysis / Control Groups / English / English as a second language learning / English language / Government and Binding Theory / Grammar / Heritage Language / Immigrants / Influence / Interference (Language) / Judgment / Korean / Korean Americans / Korean language / Language acquisition / Language Attrition / Language Dominance / Language Skill Attrition / Languages / Linguistic Theory / Linguistics / Literary Devices / Long distance / Minority languages / Monolingualism / Native Speakers / Property / Reflexivity / Second Language Learning / Second Languages / Task Analysis / Theory / Truth / Value Judgment