Parameter resetting in adult second language acquisition

성인의 제2 언어 습득에 있어서 매개변수 재고정

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Korean learners of English reset the "prodrop" parameter of Korean into "non-prodrop" parameter of English in the process of English acquisition. An experiment was conducted to 45 Korean learners of English on the prodrop phenomenon, namely on the null referential or null nonreferential subject, and subject-verb agreement by way of grammatical judgment. The results of the experiment are as follows: First, L2 learners follow the parameter of L1, and then reset the parameter of L2 regardless of the parameter of L1 as their L2 abilities advance. Thus, this study provides further support for the hypothesis that universal grammar is available via L1. Second, the referential subject is, at first, easier to acquire than nonreferential subject, and the triggering fact for the switch from [+prodrop] to [-prodrop] was the use of nonreferential subjects. Third, 3rd person agreement has no connection with the acquisition of the prodrop parameter as a result of subject-verb agreement. Therefore, these results indicate that verb agreement is not a trigger for the recognition of the obligatory subject.