중국인 학습자의 정도부사 ‘너무’의 사용 경향 연구

A Study of a Tendency in Use of Degree Adverb, ‘neo-mu’ for Chinese native students who are majoring in Korea Studies at Liaoning University

This research is to study a tendency in use of the Korean Degree Adverb, ‘neo-mu’. ‘neo-mu’ is frequently used by Korean Language learners whose mother language is Chinese, not only in spoken form, but also written form. It is used by them for extensive usage of positive Degree Adverb ‘ah-ju’, instead of its original negative implication. For this study, I conducted a survey on sophomore and senior students in the Department of Korea Studies at Liaoning University, China. First I completed questionnaires, and then analyzed their Korean writing samples. As a result, both grades of students used ‘neo-mu’ more often than ‘ah-ju’ while senior students used ‘neo-mu’ as negative implication. However it appears that many senior students still used ‘neo-mu' in positive way. This tendency seems to be caused by the influence of Korean native speakers’ incorrect speaking habit including Korean language instructors and lack of explanation on distinction for synonyms in Korean dictionary as well. Therefore, Korean language instructors should provide accurate and correct vocabulary information to Korean language learners to minimize their difficulties in vocabulary learning, and encourage them to use various Degree Adverbs in speaking and writing situation.