LINGUIST List 17.2784

Wed Sep 27 2006

Diss: Syntax: Lee: 'The Korean Internally-Headed Relative Clause Co...'

Editor for this issue: Hannah Morales <hannahlinguistlist.org>


Directory         1.    Jeongrae Lee, The Korean Internally-Headed Relative Clause Construction: Its morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects


Message 1: The Korean Internally-Headed Relative Clause Construction: Its morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects
Date: 26-Sep-2006
From: Jeongrae Lee <realmonggmail.com>
Subject: The Korean Internally-Headed Relative Clause Construction: Its morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects


Institution: University of Arizona Program: Department of Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2006

Author: Jeongrae Lee

Dissertation Title: The Korean Internally-Headed Relative Clause Construction: Its morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects

Linguistic Field(s): Syntax
Dissertation Director:
Andrew Barss Heidi B. Harley Simin Karimi Rudolph C. Troike
Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation investigates the morpho-syntactic and semantic aspects ofthe Korean IHRC (internally-headed relative clause) construction, which hasits semantic head within the relative clause, the relative clause beingfollowed by the morpheme 'kes.'

As for the status of 'kes,' I argue it is a pronoun, positioned under D orN, depending on whether 'kes' stands alone or is modified by ademonstrative. In either case, the IHRC receives the same semanticinterpretation as non-restrictive relative clause.

I argue the relative clause contains a full clause including TP, exhibitinga full range of tense and aspect distinction. I provide a morphologicalanalysis of the IHRC predicate, identifying the contribution of eachmorpheme, and the status with respect to the root predicate.

I adopt phase theory to explain the fact that the internal head cannot beembedded within more than one phase boundary. An uninterpretable feautre onC in the relative clause is checked against a matching interpretablefeature on the internal head--DP or the event vP--, and the index of theinternal head this percolates up to CP. The modified pro has the same indexas the CP and the internal head. An interesting syntactic contrast between'kes' as D and 'kes' as N is that an island effect emerges in the lattercase. This is explained by adopting Johnson (2004)'s account of adjunctislands. When 'kes' is a D, the relative clause is the same workspace asthe matrix clause, while 'kes' is an N, the relative clause is the separateworkspace.

For the semantic aspects of the IHRC, I noted when the semantic head isambiguous ebtween the subject and another element in the embedded clause,the subject is always favored as a semantic head. This phenomenon can beexplained by the minimal link condition: the subject is the closestposition to check the uninterpretable feaure on C, adapting Lin (2006).

Also, split-antecedent reading and VP adjunct head readings are coercioneffects of event-interruption reading produced in certain circumstancesbetween the matrix event and the embedded event.