Developmental aspects of English argument structure constructions for Korean-speaking second language learners: Usage-based constructional approaches to language development

- Significant improvement in understanding argument structure constructions.
- Excessively frequent use of two-argument constructions than three-argument ones.
- Stubborn use of prefabricated chunks and incorporation of new and old language items.
- Support for merging narrowly stabilised L2 routines with other resources as necessary.
- Evidence of sustaining efficiency driven by human domain-general cognitive factors.

This study investigates developmental aspects of English Argument Structure Constructions (ASCs) for Korean-speaking second language (L2) learners, providing evidence of how they manifest human domain-general cognitive systems during language acquisition via usage-based constructional approaches to language development. Participants were instructed on six English ASC types with their representative verbs for three months. The data from grammaticality preference tasks, writing tests, and free-writing tasks were analysed. Comprehension data from the grammaticality preference tasks showed significant improvement in understanding ASCs after instruction, supporting sentence-level generalisations for language comprehension independent of individual verbs. The production data from the writing tests demonstrated more frequent use of two-argument constructions than three-argument ones, which indicates the internal complexity between ASC types. The results of the writing tests also displayed skewed exploitation of verbs representative of the target ASCs, implying a frequency-sensitive nature of language acquisition. All production data further revealed active use of prefabricated chunks and incorporation of new and old language items. Taken all together, these observations suggest language learners' merging narrowly stabilised L2 routines with other (non-)linguistic resources as necessary, sustaining efficiency in a sentence-building process, under the superintendence of cognitive factors when satisfying communicative intents.