• Title/Summary/Keyword: English grammar

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Some Issues on Causative Verbs in English

  • Cho, Sae-Youn
    • Language and Information
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    • v.13 no.1
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    • pp.77-92
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    • 2009
  • Geis (1973) has provided various properties of the subjects and by + Gerund Phrase (GerP) in English causative constructions. Among them, the two main issues of Geis's analysis are as follows: unlike Lakoff (1965; 1966), the subject of English causative constructions, including causative-inchoative verbs such as liquefy, first of all, should be acts or events, not persons, and the by + GerP in the construction is a complement of the causative verbs. In addition to these issues, Geis has provided various data exhibiting other idiosyncratic properties and proposed some transformational rules such as the Agent Creation Rule and rule orderings to explain them. Against Geis's claim, I propose that English causative verbs require either Proper nouns or GerP subjects and that the by + GerP in the constructions as a Verbal Modifier needs Gerunds, whose understood Affective-agent subject is identical to the subject of causative verbs with respect to the semantic index value. This enables us to solve the two main issues. At the same time, the other properties Geis mentioned also can be easily accounted for in Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) by positing a few lexical constraints. On this basis, it is shown that given the few lexical constraints and existing grammatical tools in HPSG, the constraint-based analysis proposed here gives a simpler explanation of the properties of English causative constructions provided by Geis without transformational rules and rule orderings.

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English Sounds to Japanese Ears

  • Yuichi Endo
    • Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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    • 2000.07a
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    • pp.47-58
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    • 2000
  • For the learners of English as a foreign language, oral repetition of model sentences is an e essential practice to improve their listening and speaking abilities of English. Skill training of both speech perception and production is involved in this practice. This paper reports on an observation of production e$\pi$ors in such practice made by Japanese college students in my class. The teaching material used is intended for acquainting the learners with basic English rhythm and intonation p patterns. The students were required to repeat each sentence in a series of conversations after a model reading. Although the vocabulary and expressions were rather limited, I monitored different kinds of errors in their repetition. Putting aside intonation, their difficulties are classified into five types; 1. Omission of words or morphemes, 2. Addition of unnecessary words or morphemes, 3. Replacement of words, 4. Japanization of English sounds, 5. Wrong rhythm caused by improper stress assignment. Accurate listening, especially to weakly stressed syllables and to assimilated sounds, as has often been pointed out, is the most difficult part in perception for them. Japanese sound system interferes in production of English sounds. More often than not their knowledge of grammar or the context does not work at all to guess the words they are hearing

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A Comparison of Two English Reading Classes: With a Focus on Cooperative Learning

  • Suh, Jae-Suk
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.12 no.3
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    • pp.79-98
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    • 2006
  • As one way of changing a teacher-fronted, grammar-based reading class into a meaningful, fun-creating one, this paper compared teacher- fronted reading with student-centered reading framed upon cooperative learning. In a study in which each type of reading method was conducted for college students in an EFL reading course for a period of one semester, data were gathered via questionnaires. The results showed that though each type of reading instruction came with its own strengths and weaknesses, student-centered reading instruction was preferred for various reasons. Most important, through an active participation in cooperative work, subjects were motivated and interested in L2 reading much, were exposed to various reading strategies and skills, and practiced them in a friendly, low-anxiety learning climate.

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Consciousness in EFL Performances

  • Kim, Byoung-Won
    • Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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    • v.1 no.3
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    • pp.387-416
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    • 2001
  • In an attempt to identify highly probable causes of poor EFL performances, certain intriguing data of 11 common errors collected from 23 university students' listening and reading for correction of a short conversation of three people, with a questionnaire regarding their knowledge of the situational context, were analysed and interpreted within a theoretical framework of consciousness and the intonation unit (Chafe 1974, 1980, 1994), compatible with some important philosophical and psychological theories. The results: situational understanding does not always guarantee good EFL performances; the 11 errors were not attributable to hearing problems; consciousness appropriate for literacy and formal schooling appeared to be the major cause, which was inappropriate for a communicative use of English. Re-shaping of consciousness was suggested, with a warning against the ‘grammar consciousness raising’ approach.

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A Conceptual Framework for Korean-English Machine Translation using Expression Patterns (표현 패턴에 의한 한국어-영어 기계 번역을 위한 개념 구성)

  • Lee, Ho-Suk
    • Proceedings of the Korean Information Science Society Conference
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    • 2008.06c
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    • pp.236-241
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    • 2008
  • This paper discusses a Korean-English machine translation method using expression patterns. The expression patterns are defined for the purpose of aligning Korean expressions with appropriate English expressions in semantic and expressive senses. This paper also argues to develop a new Korean syntax analysis method using agglutinative characteristics of Korean language, expression pattern concept, sentence partition concept, and incorporation of semantic structures as well in the parsing process. We defined a simple Korean grammar to show the possibility of new Korean syntax analysis method.

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Constructional Constraints in English Free Relative Constructions

  • Kim, Jong-Bok
    • Language and Information
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    • v.5 no.1
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    • pp.35-53
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    • 2001
  • As a subtype of English relative clause constructions, free relative constructions like what John ate in I ate what John ate exhibit complicated syntactic and semantic properties. In particular, the constructions have mixed properties of nominal and verbal: they have the internal syntax of sentence and the external syntax of noun phrase. This paper provides a constraint-based approach to these mixed constructions, and shows that simple constructional constraints are enough to capture their complexities. The paper begins by surveying the properties of the constructions. In discusses two types(Specific and nonspecific) of free relatives, their ,lexical restrictions nominal properties and behavior with respect to extraposition, piped piping and stacking Following these it sketches the basic framework of the HPSG(Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar) which is of relevance in this paper. As the main part, the paper presents a constraint- based analysis in which tight interactions between grammatical constructions and a rich network of inheritance relations play important roles in accounting for the basic as well as complex properties of the constructions is question.

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Cyber Learners' Use and Perceptions of Online Machine Translation Tools

  • Moon, Dosik
    • International journal of advanced smart convergence
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    • v.10 no.4
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    • pp.165-171
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    • 2021
  • The current study investigated cyber learners' use and perceptions of online machine translation (MT) tools. The results show that learners use several MT tools frequently and extensively for various second language learning (L2) purposes according to their needs. The learners' overall perceptions of using MT for English learning were generally positive. The learners reported several advantages of machine translation: ease of use, helpful feedback, effective revision, and facilitation of self-directed learning. At the same time, a considerable number of learners were aware of MT's drawbacks, such as awkward sentences, inaccurate grammar, and inappropriate words, and thus held a negative or skeptical view on the quality and accuracy of MT. These findings have important pedagogical implications for using MT in the context of a cyber university. For successful integration of MT in English classes, teachers need to provide appropriate guidelines and training that will help learners use MT effectively.

A Comparison of Structural Organization of English Textbooks between Pre and Post North Korean 2013 Curriculum Revision (북한의 2013교육과정 개정 전·후 영어 교과서 구성 체제 비교)

  • Yoo, Hee-yeon;Kim, Jeong-ryeol
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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    • v.18 no.7
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    • pp.412-422
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    • 2018
  • The purpose of this research was to compare structural organization of North Korean English textbooks pre and post North Korean 2013 curriculum revision. 5 revised textbooks were selected and compared with old textbooks. First, revised textbooks are dramatically changed into colored printed edition. Second, there appears phrases related to Kim Jong Un for the very first time in the preface. Third, while old textbooks emphasized only reading and writing skills, new textbooks integrate 4 skills. Fourth, new textbooks follow united organization system according to the kinds of school; 7 sub skills of Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing, Grammar, Vocabulary, Pronunciation for general high middle textbooks and 5 sub skills of Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, English in Use for the first high middle textbooks. Also, new textbooks integrate English and other subject contents such as science, geography or computer. Finally, the changed structure organization of new textbooks seems to be similar with the ones of English books in the reference which is presented for the first time in North Korean textbooks.

On Implementation of Korean-English Machine Translation System through Program Reuse (프로그램 재사용을 통한 한/영 기계번역시스템의 구현에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Hion-Gun;Yang, Gi-Chul;Choi, Key-Sun
    • Annual Conference on Human and Language Technology
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    • 1993.10a
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    • pp.559-570
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    • 1993
  • In this article we present a rapid development of a Korean to English translation system, by the help of general English generator, PENMAN. PENMAN is an English sentence generation system, of which input language is a language specially devised for sentence generation, named Sentence Planning Language(SPL). The language SPL has various features that are necessary for generating sentences, covering both syntactic and semantic features. In this development we integrated a Korean language parser based on dependency grammar and the English sentence generator PENMAN, bridging two systems through a converting module, which converts dependency structures produced by Korean parser into SPL for PENMAN.

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Quality Assessment of the Abstracts of the Original Articles (1997) in the Korean Journal of Preventive Medicine (예방의학회지(1997년)에 게재된 원저논문 영문초록의 질 평가)

  • Park, Jong-Ku;Hannibal, Desmond;Kim, Chun-Bae
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.32 no.1
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    • pp.72-79
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    • 1999
  • Objectives. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of abstracts of original articles. Methods. This subjects selected total 63 abstracts of the original articles of the Korean Journal of Preventive Medicine in 1997. The quality of abstracts was measured against a checklist of evaluation criteria, which were divided into eight categories and the numbers of inappropriate words (including grammar) according to criterionbased survey. A score for each abstract was obtained by dividing the number of criteria presented by the number applicable. The overall mean score was also determined. Results. The overall mean score of abstract quality was 0.55 out of 1. Of the abstracts subject selection 83% didn't include specific technical descriptors. Of those that gave conclusions 92% didn't address study limitations and 78% made no recommendations for future study. The overall mean number of inappropriate usage of words (including grammar) per abstract was 14.1. The overall mean number of English words was 283. In the multiple regression analyses, the research career of the first author and the number of English words to the number of inappropriate usage of words were statistically significant. Also, in the secondary regression model, the number of English words to the quality score of abstract was only statistically significant. Conclusions. Most of the abstracts provided some information pertaining to each evaluation criterion. However, they did not provide sufficient details to enhance the reader's understanding of the article. On the basis of the study the abstracts need improvement in its description of the reported subject selection, statements of limitations and recommendations, etc. The Korean Society for Preventive Medicine will recommend a proposal for more informative abstracts in Korean J Prey Med and will take into consideration the introduction of foreign review of abstracts. Future studies should address these issues and compare the quality of abstracts between different journals and their time of publication.

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