Korean has a deliciously diverse vocabulary with intricacies and nuances difficult for Korean Language Learners (KLL) to grasp. To gain true proficiency, KLL must learn to think like Koreans about the four types of Korean words: Native, Sino-Korean, mimetics, and loanwords. We hypothesize that native Korean speakers inherently understand differences between these categories of words, and we pose the questions: How do native Korean speakers understand the nuances, and how can that knowledge benefit KLL? Sino-Korean words are historically based on Chinese characters, each of which represents a root-word. Although a set of Sino-Korean words may be translated the same way in English, differences in the roots give the words different meanings in Korean. We investigate Sino-Korean word nuances by polling native Korean speakers on whether sets of synonyms are interchangeable. We also explore pairs of Native Korean and Sino-Korean words with similar meanings. Native speakers are surveyed on 22 pairs to see how they derive meaning from the Sino/Native distinction. Mimetic words are widely used and very expressive in Korean, describing not only sounds, but also depicting appearance, smells, movements, sensations, and psychological states. Mimetics have particular characteristics, such as meaningful consonant and vowel choices and rhythmic repetition of sounds, knowledge of which can help KLL understand how Koreans experience and express their sensations. Finally, loanwords are words from other languages that have been adopted into Korean. With technological advances and cross-cultural communication, such language influence is inevitable, and many Korean loanwords come from English. Increasingly, loanwords are combined with native words into compounds, contributing to a sharp rise in newly formed words (신조어) whose influence is spreading among Korean youth beyond social media. Understanding the four categories of Korean words can help a KLL understand the nuances and social significance of Korean vocabulary usage.

As most introductory linguistics textbooks make clear from the start, modern linguistic theory is concerned with linguistic competence (LC), the knowledge a speaker has of their language, rather than linguistic performance (LP), the actual use of language, as LC is a ‘purer’ form of language and therefore provides more insight into what human language is. However, this has resulted in a growing distance between theoretical linguistics and language in the real world because theories of LC are rarely restrained by biological phenomena and are essentially purely formal in nature. This study’s objective is three-fold: (1) to conduct a literature review on LP models and how they have been treated in theoretical linguistics, (2) to analyze how compatible current models of LC and LP are by looking at how particular utterances would be produced and/or comprehended given the models with an emphasis on syntax, and (3) to propose a model that address this imbalance by asserting that LC can be explained in terms of LP. Finding a lack of emphasis on LP and poor compatibility with theoretical frameworks in the literature would indicate a loss of direction in human language research, a biological phenomenon, and justify the need for more work in the area, to which the proposal seeks to contribute.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) result from prenatal exposure to alcohol that causes variable degrees of brain damage, facial abnormalities, and cognitive-communication impairments. Research in recent decades has shown that FASD impairs children’s social and linguistic skills, which become especially apparent in narratives. As such, analysis of this population’s narratives has revealed the ways that they differ from typically developing children with respect to the complexity, cohesion, and length of their stories. This analysis has become an integral part of diagnosis. However, no such study has examined this population’s use of evaluative devices, which are elements in stories that go beyond restating the events and into conveying opinions, emotions, and pragmatic information. Evaluative devices have been operationalized in narrative analysis across several impaired populations and proven to be a useful metric for distinguishing typical from atypical narratives. Because different cognitive disorders impact use of evaluatives in different ways, it remains unclear whether the skill is driven primarily by social or linguistic mechanisms. Thus, the present investigation seeks to explain how the FASD population uses evaluative devices in narratives to inform two purposes. First, the results of this study will advance a poorly understood component of this population’s narratives, which could give clinicians a new linguistic skill to measure in diagnosis. Secondly, because of the nature of this population’s social and cognitive impairments, this study will also add to the discussion about the capacities that help predict use of evaluatives. To do this, the present study will code narrative transcripts from children with FASD for frequency and proportional use of evaluative devices and compare their performance to their age-matched, typically developing peers. This analysis will advance what is known about how FASD impacts children’s linguistic development.

Previous work from our laboratory has shown that the central nervous system (CNS) of nonstuttering adults modulates its processing of auditory inputs during speech movement planning (reflected in a decreased amplitude of the N1 component in auditory evoked potentials recorded prior to speaking vs. non-speaking control conditions). Interestingly, we have also found that this pre-speech auditory modulation is lacking in adults who stutter. If this finding can be replicated in children who are still relatively close to the onset of stuttering, such sensorimotor interaction deficiencies may play a major role in the speech dysfluencies that characterize the disorder. Here, we describe a novel experimental paradigm that allows us to address pre-speech auditory modulation in children, and we present preliminary data from stuttering and nonstuttering children. Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings are used to obtain auditory evoked potentials in response to probe tones presented during the display of pictures that have been cued to require a verbal response or no response. The cue consists of a drawing of a mouth (verbal response required) or an eye (no response required) that appears at the same time as a stimulus picture. The probe tone is presented through insert earphones 500 ms after the stimulus picture is presented and 200 ms before the mouth or eye turns green (corresponding to the “go” signal in verbal response trials). Data collection and analyses are currently ongoing. Preliminary results are presented, and these new findings for stuttering vs. nonstuttering children are discussed in the context of our previous results obtained from adult subjects as well as our general theoretical framework of the potential sensorimotor mechanisms underlying stuttering.

In the United States, much research has been conducted to assess linguistic attitudes towards Spanish accented English, but little to no research has been done to evaluate the linguistic attitudes of English accented Spanish. In this study, I aim to assess the linguistic attitudes that Spanish speaking immigrants and their descendants have towards English accented Spanish. In developing my hypothesis, I consider well-documented negative attitudes towards Spanish accented English, anti-Spanish language ideology in the United States, and the claim that stereotypes are often internalized by the stereotyped. I therefore predict that Hispanic immigrants and their descendants will paradoxically possess more favorable attitudes towards English accented Spanish and less favorable attitudes towards the Spanish spoken by their peers across dimensions of superiority, solidarity, dynamism, and physical attractiveness. I conducted a matched guise experiment in which respondents heard and evaluated a native Spanish speaking voice and an English accented voice without realizing the same person produced both ‘guises’. Listeners rated these guises on questionnaires using semantic differential scales along the aforementioned dimensions. Their scores were submitted to statistical analysis to test my hypothesis.