The First Language Acquisition of Relative Clauses in Korean: Continuity of the Principles of Universal Grammar in First Language Acquisition

한국(韓國) 아동(兒童)의 관계절 습득 연구 - 보편문법(普遍文法) 언어원리(言語原理)의 지속적(持續的) 언어습득(言語習得) 이론(理論)을 중심으로 -

The purpose of the present study was to examine the development of embedding through relative clause formation in the first language acquisition of Korean. Results are reported from the study of the spantaneous natural speech of 36 young Korean children ranging from 16 months to 45 months in age acquiring Korean as their first language in Chinju, Korea. The results revealed a developmental order in the first language acquisition of Korean relative clause structures. Namely, a free or headless relative clause appears to be acquired first, before lexically headed restrictive relative construction. This order is consistent with one evidenced in English (and also Chinese) first language acquisition, 'free' relatives appear to provide a developmentally early stage in the acquisition of restrictive relative clauses. The Korean data provided additional evidence for an intermediary stage with an overt complementizer as well as an overt lexical head. Implications for the results are disscused with regard to a continuous theory of universal grammar in the first language acquisition.