A Cross-Linguistic Analysis of Psychological Verb Acquisition: Korean and Chinese Learners of English

• Published in: Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics Vol. 25; pp. 620 - 637
• Main Authors: Kim, Jihyun, Zhang, Fan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 한국영어학회 01.05.2025
• Subjects: 영어와문학
• ISSN: 1598-1398; 2586-7474
• DOI: 10.15738/kjell.25..202505.620

The study examines how differences in the way Korean and Chinese express psychological states influence the acquisition of English psychological verbs, with a focus on non-agentive Experiencer-Subject (ES) verbs. In English, non-agentive ES verbs (e.g., fear) are expressed using a nominative-accusative SVO structure (e.g., I fear ghosts), where the subject functions as a non-agentive Experiencer. In Korean, however, non-agentive Experiencers are primarily expressed through psych adjective constructions (e.g., twulypta, “be afraid”), which use double nominative alignments (e.g., na-nun kwisin-i twulypta, “I am afraid of ghosts”). This structural difference may lead Korean learners to interpret English non-agentive ES verbs as psych-adjectives, complicating their acquisition of the correct SVO structure. In contrast, Chinese frequently uses SVO constructions for psychological states (e.g., Wǒ hàipà guǐ, “I fear ghosts”), aligning more closely with English. To investigate these influences, we conducted a picture-matching task and a translation task with 34 Korean and 36 Chinese learners of English. The results revealed three key findings. First, Korean learners struggled to interpret non-agentive ES verbs as verbs, often defaulting to psych adjective-like patterns, unlike Chinese learners who consistently interpreted them as verbs. Second, both Korean and Chinese learners rated non-agentive ES verbs lower than agentive ES verbs, likely because mapping a non-agentive entity to the subject position is less intuitive. However, the gap between ratings for the two verb types was significantly larger for Korean learners, reflecting the influence of L1-specific structures. Third, proficiency improved overall ratings for both groups, but it did not fully mitigate the challenges Korean learners faced with non-agentive ES verbs, highlighting the persistent influence of their native language. The findings suggest that structural differences in native languages influence how Korean and Chinese learners acquire English non-agentive ES verbs. KCI Citation Count: 0