L2 Acquisition and Processing of Korean Direct Object and Oblique Relative Clauses by English Speakers

This study examined the online comprehension of Korean direct object and oblique relative clauses (RCs) by English-speaking second language (L2) learners of Korean. A self-paced reading task and a follow-up picture selection task were conducted with adult English learners of Korean at intermediate and low proficiency levels, together with a control group of adult native Korean speakers. The results from the picture selection task showed that oblique RCs were characterized by longer response times and lower accuracy rates than direct object RCs reflecting the noun phrase accessibility hierarchy effect. The outcomes of the self-paced reading task, however, revealed that in the two L2 learner groups, as well as the native speaker group, the total reading time was longer for direct object RCs than for oblique RCs (though the difference was statistically significant for learners with low proficiency only). The longer total reading time for the Korean direct object condition can largely be attributed to the momentary processing difficulty of the oblique argument marked by a postposition. This may be due to the possibility that ditransitive constructions are more difficult to process than transitive constructions.