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Kim, Jihyun. 2015. Animacy Effect on L2 Acquisition of English Psychological Verbs. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 40-3, 307-332. The present study aims to specify a factor that causes Korean learners of English to experience many learnability problems when learning English psych verbs, especially focusing on Experiencer-Object verbs (henceforth, E-O verbs). In doing so, it was hypothesized that Korean speakers’ strong preference for animate subject is one of the main reasons for it. In order to test the hypothesis, the present study examines Korean speakers’ animate subject preference and how much it affects their acquisition of English psych verbs. The following are the three important findings. The results of the study show that (1) Korean speakers strongly prefer animate subject when expressing a psychological state compared to English natives. With this point at hand, theoretical arguments (Han, 2000; Kim, 1999; Park, 2001) on Korean speakers’ animate subject preferences are experimentally confirmed. (2) Korean speakers’ preference for animate subjects can change with their English proficiency. (3) Korean speakers’ animate subject preferences and their acquisition of English E-O psych verbs are correlated negatively. This means that the more Korean participants prefer animate subjects in psych verb construction, the less they understand English E-O psych verbs. In conclusion, the results of the present study indicate that Korean speakers’ preferences of animate subject play a significant role that hinders their acquisition of English E-O psych verbs. (Korea University)