Oh, Eunjeong. 2014. An Experimental Study of English Perfective Interpretation by Korean Speakers. Language Information. Volume 18. 73-90. English perfectives describe fully-completed events, whereas Korean perfectives describe both partially- and fully-completed events. The capacity of perfectives to denote partial completion interpretations is called the incompleteness effect which arise only for accomplishments with incremental themes. This paper examines Korean speakers' interpretations of English perfectives, precisely, whether they are able to reject English perfectives with incomplete events, and whether their patterns vary across predicate types (accomplishments vs. achievements). The results show that partially-completed events yield differences across predicate types. Unlike controls who rejected both predicates, Korean learners tended to reject achievements but to accept accomplishments, as descriptions of partially-completed events. This paper explores the role of semantic and contextual factors in interpreting response patterns found in the study.
key words: perfectives, incompleteness effect, accomplishments with incremental themes, partially/fully-completed events