earticle

영어

There are two main purposes for this study. One is to investigate the differences in use between the English synonymous adjectives silent and quiet through analysis of ‘adjective+noun’ expressions in BNC. The other is to look at native speakers’ knowledge of lexical combinations from the viewpoint of the cognitive process, rather than the end state, of language acquisition. According to the analysis of ‘silent/quiet+noun’ expressions, although the two adjectives are synonymous the use of them is considerably different. Based on the analysis of a variety of ‘adjective+noun’ expressions, the paper demonstrates that native speakers’ ability to distinguish proper/improper lexical combinations can naturally be explained only if language acquisition begins with word sequences, not with individual words, and discusses several implications for language acquisition.