Reference: Activity 1
Who did what?
Please read the information about reference before working through these activities.
In the Narrative Task, the narrator has to distinguish among three different female characters, and so has to use referential expressions that help the listener keep them separate.
How did Sophia and Anna B refer to the three females in the story, in a sequence where typically they had to first introduce the old woman, then refer to the young woman and the child, and then refer to the two women conversing in the aisle, and then refer again to the child as she transferred a bottle into an old woman’s purse?
- Watch Anna B’s and Sophia’s Narrative tasks (Anna B Narrative Video; Sophia Narrative Video) and if needed, read the transcripts (linked below each video).
- Write in the table below the referential expressions used by each speaker to refer for the first time to each woman and the child, then to the women again, and the child again.
To establish a baseline for comparison, we asked two native speakers of Korean to do these same tasks; in the table below, we have written the referential expressions those native speakers used to refer to the females in the story.
| NS1 (Kim) | NS2 (Lee) | Anna B | Sophia | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st mention of old woman | 이 노부인 (this old lady) |
중년의 여자 (middle-aged woman) |
||
| 1st mention of young woman | 이웃집에 있는 젊은 부인 (young lady living next door) |
아는 여자 (female acquaintance) |
||
| 1st mention of child | 부인이 데리고 온 이 여자아이 (this girl accompanied by [the] lady) |
딸 (daughter) |
||
| 2nd mention of young woman | 부인 (lady) |
이 아는 여자 (this female acquaintance) |
||
| 2nd mention of old woman | 이 노부인 (this old lady) |
처음의 그 중년 여자 (that first middle-aged woman) |
||
| 2nd mention of both women | None | 둘 (two) |
||
| 2nd mention of child | None | 딸 (daughter) |
Native Speaker Transcriptions
Native Speaker1 (Kim)
이 노 부인이 쇼핑을 하고 있었는데, 어 아는 사람인 거 같아요. 뭐 이웃집에 있는 젊은 부인을 만났어요. 근데 부인과 어 와인 섹션 이런 데에서 얘길하고 있는데, 음 얘기에 집중하다보니까 부인이 데리고 온 이 여자아이가 심심해져서 어 여기 이렇게 뭐 파는 물건들을 보다가 와인병을 집어서 보다가 음 이 노부인의 가방 안에 노부인이 모르게 그 와인병 하나를 가방 안에 집어 넣는 그런 상황인 거 같애요.
Native Speaker 2 (Lee)
음. 일단 어 식료품점에 중년의 여자가 장을 보러 왔는데, 카트를 끌고 쇼핑을 하던 와중에 아는 여자를 만난 거죠. 근데 이 아는 여자는 딸과 함께 있었고, 이 여자 역시 카트를 끌고 있는데, 카트에 딸이 타고 있네요. 둘이 한참 얘기를 하는 와중에 딸이 옆에 있던 선반에서 술? 음료 같은 거를 하나 꺼내가지고 처음의 그 중년 여자의 가방에 그냥 집어넣는데, 이 얘기하는 두 어른은 그거를 모르는 상황이에요. 나중에 걸리지 않을까요?
Please type your answers to the questions in the box below.
When you have finished typing your answer, click to compare your response with the Learner Language staff response.
| NS1 (Kim) | NS 2 (Lee) | Anna B | Sophia | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st mention of old woman | 이 노부인
(this old lady) |
중년의 여자 (middle-aged woman) |
할머니
(elderly woman) |
아줌마 (middle-aged woman) |
| 1st mention of young woman | 이웃집에 있는 젊은 부인
(young lady living next door) |
아는 여자
(female acquaintance) |
아줌마
(middle-aged woman) |
친구
(friend) |
| 1st mention of child | 부인이 데리고 온 이 여자아이
(this girl accompanied by [the] lady) |
딸
(daughter) |
아줌마의 아기 (middle-aged woman’s baby) |
여자아이
(girl) |
| 2nd mention of young woman | 부인
(lady) |
이 아는 여자
(this female acquaintance) |
아줌마
(middle-aged woman) |
친구
(friend) |
| 2nd mention of old woman | 이 노부인
(this old lady) |
처음의 그 중년 여자
(that first middle-aged woman) |
할머니
(elderly woman) |
아줌마
(middle-aged woman) |
| 2nd mention of both women | None | 둘
(two) |
할머니하고 아줌마 (elderly woman and middle-aged woman) | None |
| 2nd mention of child | None | 딸
(daughter) |
아기
(baby) |
여자아이
(girl) |
The native speakers tend to use longer noun phrases than the learners to refer for the first time to the two women. They include information about the women’s relationship when they refer for the first time to the young woman. NS1, Kim, refers to her as ‘이웃집에 있는 젊은 부인 (a young lady living next door [of the old lady])’; a relative clause is used to relate the young lady to the older one. NS 2, Lee, refers to the young woman as ‘아는 여자 (a female acquaintance [of the middle-aged woman])’; again, a relative clause is used to provide a relationship between the women. In contrast, the learners use shorter expressions for their first reference to both women. Anna B uses ‘할머니 (an elderly woman)’ and ‘아줌마 (a [middle-aged] woman).’ These expressions refer to age difference between the two women, but do not provide information about their relationship. Sophia does reference a relationship between the women, but uses a single noun, not a relative clause: ‘아줌마 (a [middle-aged] woman)’ and ‘친구(a friend).’ The English word ‘friend’ refers to someone who knows and has mutual affection regardless of age differences, but the Korean word, 친구 usually refers to those of the same age. Sophia seems to use the Korean word ‘친구’ to mean what the English word means. When the native speakers refer to the women for the second time, they use a demonstrative determiner, ‘이 (this)’ or ‘그 (that).’ However, the learners do not use the demonstrative determiners for the second mention of the women.
When both the native speakers and the learners refer to the child for the first time, they specify the relationship between the young woman and the child. Anna B uses a possessive noun phrase, ‘아줌마의 아기 (a [middle-aged] woman’s baby), and the native speaker, Kim uses a relative clause, ‘부인이 데리고 온 이 여자아이 (this girl who is accompanied by [the] lady).’ Sophia and the native speaker, Lee, use sentences to refer to the relationship; ‘친구가 여자 아이 있어요 (A friend has a girl)’ and ‘여자는 딸과 함께 있었고… (A woman was with [her] daughter, and…).’ For the second mention of the child, both speakers use a single unmodified noun, which adequately distinguishes her from the two women for listeners to the oral narrative.
