This study explores the frequency distribution of the verb seem together with its three alternating complement structures: to-infinitive, that-clause, and adjectival/nominal complements. Based on an analysis of sample data selected from COCA, we investigate the conditions that may influence the choice among these argument structures. Our analysis has shown the following results: First, of the three complement structures, the that-clause complement was rarely used, a pattern consistent with the findings of previous studies. Second, discourse pragmatic factors such as information status and topichood of the subject, and judgement/evaluative semantics of complements were shown to be involved in the selection of the argument structure. Third, the preference for simpler structures evidenced in the usage data suggests the economy principle as a possible force behind the argument selection. The preliminary findings of this study should be complemented by future research with bigger sample data.

This study explores the distribution of the multi-functional V-ing construction in Korean college freshmen’s written English, focusing on its use across different proficiency levels and text types. A small corpus (75,000 words) consisting of narrative and argumentative essays was analyzed, producing the following results: 1) The overall frequency of the V-ing construction exhibited a relation, though non-linear, with L2 proficiency. 2) The V-ing construction was more common as the gerund than the participle, a pattern consistent with what was observed in previous NS studies. 3) In argumentative essays, gerunds as sentential subjects were as common as the prepositional object function in contrast to the overwhelming number of prepositional objects in NS data. 4) The adverbial participle clause emerged ahead of the nominal modifier, and the subordinate participle clauses tended to precede the matrix clauses in the narrative essays and in the argumentative essays of the lower level learners. Influence of the essay prompts, learners’ insufficient knowledge of the lexico-discourse features of the gerund and the participle clauses were conjectured to have attributed to the pattern incongruent with that of NS usage. Pedagogical implications are suggested to enhance L2 learners’ knowledge of the target construction.

This paper examines the behavior of predicational adverbs in a learner corpus of English, focusing on an overall distributional pattern, the correlation between adverbial meaning and position, and common error types. Two types of essays (argumentative and narrative) produced by university freshmen at two proficiency levels (beginner and high-intermediate) were selected for analysis from the one-million word Yonsei English Learner Corpus (YELC). Notable findings from the analysis include the following: 1) The high level learner corpus, and the argumentative writings within the same level, contained more predicational adverbs, both in diversity and frequency, demonstrating the role of L2 proficiency and text type in the fluency with which the learners employed predicational adverbs. 2) Knowledge of scopal distinction began to emerge, i.e. the distinction between VP-level and S-level adverbs or between speech acts and evaluative adverbs. 3) Errors involving lexical selection were more common than word order errors, corroborating the observation in previous research that lexico-semantic learning trails behind syntactic learning. Considering both the crucial role of adverbial modification as a key to nuance in communication and the difficulty of acquiring lexical selection, it is recommended that more emphasis be given to the lexico-semantic aspects of adverbs in the L2 classroom.

This study explores Korean learners' knowledge of adverb positions in L2 English. A questionnaire of 28 items, constructed based on Ernst's (2002) scope-based theory of adverb positions, was administered to 56 Korean university students and 17 native English speakers. The data analysis revealed the following: 1) The Korean students' knowledge of adverb placement diverged from that of the native speakers in several aspects, possibly due to L1 influence or limited L2 proficiency. 2) Scope reversal errors incurred by incorrect adverb placement were relatively frequent in the learners' responses, with the low and mid proficiency groups exhibiting higher error rates. 3) The scope of manner adverbs was observed to be acquired before that of clausal adverbs, and speech act adverbs before evaluative and subject-oriented adverbs. 4) L1 influence was manifested in the avoidance of the s-final position for manner adverbs and in the interruption of the verb and object by an adverb. The status of the Interface Hypothesis in L2 acquisition (Sorace & Filiaci, 2006) was discussed in light of the results.

This study examines the acquisition order and pattern of Korean particles in the interlanguage of migrant workers who were learning Korean as L2 in naturalistic settings with little exposure to formal instruction. Data collected from 48 Chinese and Indonesian workers through semi-structured interviews were analyzed, and the observed pattern was compared with that of instructed L2 learners reported in Hwang (2002). The results are the following: 1) A strong affinity was shown between the rank order of the particles in the workers' data and the frequency of particles in a native corpus presented in Se and Gu (2005), attesting the crucial role input plays in L2 acquisition. 2) The acquisition pattern of the workers was both similar and different from that of the instructed learners, the difference resulting from 'transfer of training'. 3) L1 influence was evidenced in the fact that the Japanese L1 learners passed through the developmental sequence faster than the other L2 groups.