The Effect of Noun Animacy on L2 Processing of the English Plural Morpheme –s by Korean and Chinese Learners

• Published in: 영미연구, 54(0) pp. 251 - 278
• Main Author: 백순도
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 영미연구소 01.02.2022
• Subjects: 학제간연구
• ISSN: 2508-4135; 2508-5417

This study investigates the effect of noun animacy on second language processing of the English nominal plural morpheme –s by Korean- and Chinese-speaking learners of English. Unlike English, the plural markers in Korean and Chinese are largely optional, and are subject to distributional constraints contingent on the animacy of the host nouns, such that in Korean, pluralization is more readily available for the nouns that denote humans than those that denote objects, while in Chinese, only human nouns can take the plural marker. Based on these observations, the present study tested whether and how the animacy of nouns affects second language acquisition and processing of the English plural morpheme. To that end, the sensitivity of Korean and Chinese learners of English to the ungrammaticality of the singular human vs. object nouns occurring in obligatory plural contexts was measured in a self-paced sentence reading task. The results showed that both groups of learners were sensitive to number violation on human nouns but not on inanimate nouns, suggesting an important role of noun animacy in the L2 processing of the English plural morpheme. The implications are discussed in terms of theory development and pedagogical application in second language acquisition. KCI Citation Count: 1