The Negative Split Infinitive in Corpus and in Korean EFL Learners' Interlanguage

Abstract

This study aims to investigate whether Korean college learners of English are sensitive to the distinction between negative split and non-split infinitives, and how their judgments align with the patterns attested in a corpus of contemporary English. The frequencies of to-not-V and not-to-V in various styles as well as empirical data collected from the acceptability judgment tasks and meaning equivalence judgment task were reported. By integrating corpus data with experimental judgment data, this study seeks to explore the learners' perceptive aspects of the less acceptable variant. In spite of the coexistence of the negative split and non-split infinitives in corpus, the findings show that learners tend to stick to the prescriptive grammar. The pedagogical implication is discussed with respect to the iatrogenic errors.