The present study examines the interpretation of Korean relative clauses (RC) by English speakers of L2 Korean. The purpose of the study is to see if these learners employ the same parsing strategy as native Korean speakers in the processing of a complex NP followed by a RC. Processing strategies were investigated with two different conditions, which were distinguished from each other by animacy presence in the second NP of a complex NP (e.g., chayk-ul ilk-nun apeci-uy atul ‘the son of the father who is reading a book’: [+ani, +ani] condition vs. kyosil-ey iss-nun haksayng-uy chayk ‘the book of the student who is in the classroom’: [+ani, -ani] condition). Korean speakers showed equal preference in the [+ani, +ani] condition, while they showed low attachment (LA) preference in the [+ani, -ani] condition. On the other hand, English speakers showed LA preference in both conditions. We assume that this LA preference by the English speakers might have been due to either the universal processing principle (recency) or influence from their L1, both of which make the same attachment site. The source of the Korean speakers diverging behavior is discussed on the basis of difference in verb meaning used in each condition. The discrepancy between the two language groups leads us to propose that English speakers do not rely on the same processing strategies as Korean speakers.

I investigate the parsing strategies of relative clause (RC) attachment preferences by Korean speakers and English learners of Korean as a second language. RC can modify either NP1 or NP2 as its host when the antecedent consists of a complex NP as in `kyosil-ey iss-nun haksayng-uy chayk`, where either haksayng or chayk can be interpreted as a host. Two test methodology (a picture identification test and a written questionnaire test) were used to examine the parsing preferences by the two language groups. The results show that Korean speakers and English speakers converged or diverged depending on the test methodology. While the two language groups behaved similarly in the former test, they did not in the latter test. A strict working memory capacity and lack of knowledge about the verb semantics by L2 learners were assumed as possible reasons for the different parsing preferences. Based on the findings, I propose that native speakers and L2 learners do not have the same source of computational system and that different types of tests are necessary to get a clearer picture of L2 processing system in psycholinguistic research.

Soo-Ok Kweon. 2001. UG Availability and Wanna Contraction. Studies in Modern Grammar 24, 203-223. This paper investigates the acquisition of wanna contraction in English by adult L2 learners to see whether they correctly apply the constraint on contraction. Want to can be contracted to wanna in object extraction question, such as (1) Who do you want to/wanna kiss? However, want to cannot be contracted to wanna in subject extraction question as in (2) Who do you want to/*wanna kiss Bill? A prominent constraint on this phenomenon is based on the trace theory of movement rules (Lightfoot 1976; Chomsky 1980; Jeaggli 1980). If UG guides L2 acquisition, the learners will obey the constraint. High-proficiency Korean adult learners of English were tested on contraction in possible and impossible situations. Subjects were placed into four categories based on the contraction pattern they showed on the tests. While some subjects followed the UG-compatible pattern, many did not. This calls into question the general availability of UG.