SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Yeon, Jaehoon (2021), “Extra-linguistic Knowledge and Pragmatics in the Interpretation of Korean Relative Clauses,” Language and Information Society 44. This paper explores how morpho-syntactic and semantic constraints interact with extra-linguistic and pragmatic factors in the interpretation of Korean relative clauses. Relative clauses in Korean are qualitatively different from those in European languages. This paper demonstrates that the interpretation of Korean relative clauses depends on context and pragmatic factors. In prior research, particularly in formal syntax, pragmatic factors have been neglected in considering relative clauses. Extra-linguistic knowledge and pragmatic factors play important roles in acceptability judgements and plausibility conditions for the interpretation of relative clauses in Korean. We also propose that Korean relative clauses show similarities to topic constructions in Korean. The plausibility condition in relative clauses can be compared to the aboutness condition in topic constructions. Lastly, we have shown that various pragmatic information interacts with and contributes to appropriate interpretation of Korean relative clauses.