Semantic Differences between Null Pronouns and Overt Pronouns

Kang, Nam-Kil 한국중앙영어영문학회 2006 영어영문학연구 Vol.48 No.4

This paper is devoted to the semantic behavior of null pronouns and overt pronouns. As observed earlier, both overt pronouns and null pronouns in Korean can take split antecedents. Such a fact suggests that Korean has two types of pronouns allowing split antecedents. Likewise, English pronouns, Korean overt pronouns, and Korean null pronouns with respect to demonstrative uses exhibit the same property. As for BVA, however, null pronouns do not behave like overt pronouns. The former induces a bound variable interpretation, but the latter may not. When it comes to the indirect/ direct test, Korean null pronouns attribute a direct thought like English PRO, whereas Korean overt pronouns attribute an indirect thought of the sort associated with English pronouns. Another peculiar property of null pronouns and overt pronouns is observed within opaque contexts. In this case, only the former gives rise to a de re thought, a thought that the speaker has about himself. Korean overt pronouns and null pronouns can also be E-type. Nonetheless, E-type overt pronouns and null pronouns differ in their definiteness. Finally, Korean null pronouns show characteristics similar to one in English, whereas overt pronouns present characteristics similar to the definite pronoun it. In conclusion, these semantic differences between overt pronouns and null pronouns seem to suggest that a null pronoun is not the genuine null counterpart of an overt pronoun in Korean.

부정형(infinitive) 관계절과 외현적(overt) 관계대명사의 분포에 관한 연구

김광섭 ( Kwang Sup Kim ) 한국외국어대학교 언어연구소 2011 언어와 언어학 Vol.0 No.53

One of the remarkable differences between finite relative clauses and infinitive relative clauses lies in the presence of overt relative pronouns. Unlike finite relative clauses, infinitive relative clauses do not permit overt relative pronouns except the case in which prepositions are pied-piped. This paper proposes that the distribution of overt relative pronouns can be captured by the constraint that both the relative pronoun and the modifying marker to must be adjacent to its antecedent. If there is an overt relative pronoun, to cannot be adjacent to the antecedent, which results in ungrammaticality. This paper extends this Adjacency approach to the phenomenon that there is no overt relative pronoun in Korean. I argue that if there were an overt relative pronoun in Korean, no grammatical sentence could be generated, for it could not be adjacent to the antecedent or would prevent the modifying marker (n)un from being adjacent to the antecedent.

Pronominal Anaphora Resolution in Korean: Investigating the Effects of Case-marking

최진선 한국언어학회 2023 언어 Vol.48 No.2

This paper explores native Korean speakers’ preference for pronominal anaphora resolution in Korean. More specifically, it empirically tests the predictions of the Position of Antecedent Hypothesis (PAH), which was originally proposed for Italian pronouns, and investigates the effects of case-marking on the referential preference of overt pronouns. A self-paced reading experiment was conducted with thirty-nine native Korean-speaking adults, and reading times were examined in four conditions created by crossing two factors: pronoun type (null pronoun vs. overt pronoun with the topic marker –nun vs. overt pronoun with the nominative marker –ka) and antecedent bias (subject vs. object). The results showed that Korean speakers preferred to interpret null pronouns as referring to subject antecedents, as predicted by the PAH. However, overt pronouns behaved differently depending on the case marking of the pronoun: while the overt pronouns with the nominative marker showed a preference for object antecedents, no preference was observed for those with the topic marker. These findings suggest that while the mechanism of pronominal anaphora resolution in Korean may be explained by the PAH in general, case-marking on the pronoun also plays a role as one of the factors influencing resolution preference.

Interpretation and Processing of Null and Overt Pronouns in Korean

Jinsun Choe 담화·인지언어학회 2021 담화와 인지 Vol.28 No.1

This paper investigates whether Korean null pronouns are biased towards subject reference and overt pronouns towards object reference as predicted by the Position of Antecedent Hypothesis (PAH; Carminati 2002), initially proposed for Italian. In particular, in order to distinguish whether pronoun resolution is governed by syntactic or information structure factors, we manipulate word order (canonical SOV vs. scrambled OSV) and the pronoun type (null vs. overt), as well as the kind of temporal connective used between clauses. One hundred and thirty-three native Korean-speaking adults participated in a multiple-choice questionnaire, in which they were asked to choose the antecedent of the null or overt pronoun. The results reveal that while limited support for the PAH is found, there is a strong preference for the subject antecedent for both null and overt pronouns, even for the scrambled sentences, suggesting that syntactic factors play a greater role in the resolution of pronouns in Korean.

회생대명사의 인허에 대하여

이상오 한국중앙영어영문학회 2008 영어영문학연구 Vol.50 No.3

This paper aims at exploring the possibilities of syntactic explanation for resumptive pronouns occurring in English relative clauses. The 'spelt- out trace' approach to resumptive pronouns, in which they are considered to be Spell-Outs of illicit traces and thus to save violations of syntactic conditions, is claimed to have some theory-internal problems. Instead, we assume the 'base-generation approach' to resumptive pronouns on the hypothesis that a CRP (Covert Resumptive Pronoun) is base-generated and converted to an ORP (Overt Resumptive Pronoun) following the 'visibility condition of resumptive pronoun[s]' proposed by Gu (2001). However, the required qualification of the licensor, which needs to be defined by parametric variation, plays an important role either in converting the CRP to ORP, or in preventing the CRP from converting to an ORP. But Gu's (2001) 'visibility condition of resumptive pronoun[s]' is found not to be sufficient enough to account for some structures in English. Thus, along with parametric variation of licensors, his 'visibility condition of resumptive pronouns' can be revised to account for incorrectly predicted grammaticality of some English sentences, including resumptive pronouns in relative clauses.

인칭대명사 생략 문장의 A-B번역 양상 : 소설 <프라자호텔>을 중심으로

김한식,강동희,남슬기,서승희,석주희,송신애,최지수,홍승빈 한국통역번역학회 2019 통역과 번역 Vol.21 No.3

This study evaluates translations of a Korean short story to determine how pro-drop pronouns are translated into other languages, whether they are translated into null subject pronouns as in Korean. Eight researchers identified instances of pro-drop from a Korean short story titled Plaza Hotel and identified the distribution of overt and null subject pronouns in five target languages including English, German, Russian, Spanish and Japanese. The sentences were divided into dialogues and declarative sentences and subjects were classified into different types of pronouns for further analysis. The study demonstrated that null subjects were translated into overt pronouns in English (76.0%), German (64.3%), Russian (56.1%), Spanish (1.4%) and Japanese (0.5%). The percentage of overt pronouns in Spanish and Japanese were considerably low compared to other languages, which indicates that these two languages share a particular characteristic. The study also illustrated that the distribution of overt pronouns were higher in declarative sentences than dialogues and the gap was particularly pronounced in English (14.5 percentage point) and Russian (28.2 percentage point), and less so for German (3.0 percentage point). Moreover, the occurrence of null subjects being translated into first person subject pronouns were higher than third person subject pronouns

명시 대명사 제약과 Halkomelem

김경민 전북대학교 인문학연구소 2024 건지인문학 Vol.- No.39

Montalbetti (1984)가 제안한 명시적 대명사 제약(Overt Pronoun Constraint)에 따르면, pro-탈락 언어의 명시적 대명사는 결속 변항(bound variable)의 역할을 수행할 수 없다. 일반적으로 이 명시 대명사 제약은 그동안 보편문법(Universal Grammar)의 한 원리로서 간주되어 온 것이 사실이다 (Kanno 1998, White 2002). 따라서, Halkomelem은 pro-탈락 언어로서 이 명시적 대명사 제약을 준수할 것으로 예측된다. 그러나, 본 연구는 Halkomelem 대명사의 결속(binding) 관련 특성이 명시 대명사 제약을 따르는 것으로 간주되어 온 다른 pro-탈락 언어들의 대명사의 결속 관련 특성과 차이가 존재함을 보여주는 언어 데이터를 제시한다. 이를 통해, 본 연구는 그동안 일반적으로 수용되어 온 명시적 대명사 제약의 보편성과 유효성을 재고해야함을 강조한다. According to the Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) proposed by Montalbetti (1984), overt pronouns cannot act as bound variables in pro-drop languages. The OPC is widely assumed to be a UG principle. Halkomelem, as a pro-drop language, is thus predicted to be governed by the OPC. In this study, however, we present that the binding properties of Halkomelem pronouns differ from those of other pro-drop languages in which the OPC is allegedly observed, thus undermining the validity of the OPC.

The Acquisition of Overt and Null Pronouns in L2 Korean by English Speakers

Hee-Jeong Song 한국응용언어학회 2013 응용 언어학 Vol.29 No.2

This paper investigates adult English-speaking learners’ knowledge of the Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) in L2 Korean. An embedded overt pronoun in pro-drop languages cannot take a quantified or wh-word matrix subject as an antecedent. This observable distribution between overt and null pronouns is being captured under the OPC, a principle of UG which is operative in Korean, a pro-drop grammar, but not in English, a non-pro-drop grammar. This study examines the relationship between overt and null pronominal alternations in L2 learners’ grammars in OPC contexts by testing a version of the Full Access account. The participants consist of 41 adult English learners of Korean at two different proficiency levels, whom have completed a co-reference comprehension task. The results of the study show that L2 speakers can achieve target-like syntactic representations of the OPC in both subject and object positions, in support of Full Access.

The Acquisition of Overt and Null Pronouns in L2 Korean by English Speakers

송희정 한국응용언어학회 2013 응용 언어학 Vol.29 No.2

This paper investigates adult English-speaking learners’ knowledge of the Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) in L2 Korean. An embedded overt pronoun in pro-drop languages cannot take a quantified or wh-word matrix subject as an antecedent. This observable distribution between overt and null pronouns is being captured under the OPC, a principle of UG which is operative in Korean, a pro-drop grammar, but not in English, a non-pro-drop grammar. This study examines the relationship between overt and null pronominal alternations in L2 learners’ grammars in OPC contexts by testing a version of the Full Access account. The participants consist of 41 adult English learners of Korean at two different proficiency levels, whom have completed a co-reference comprehension task. The results of the study show that L2 speakers can achieve target-like syntactic representations of the OPC in both subject and object positions, in support of Full Access.

한중 번역에서의 인칭대명사 주어 처리 양상 대조 ― 소설 《프라자호텔》을 중심으로

임소정 ( Lim Sojeong ),이아형 ( Lee Ahyoung ) 한국중국어문학회 2024 中國文學 Vol.118 No.-

한국어와 중국어는 대표적인 고맥락 언어로 분류된다. 고맥락 언어는 비언어적 신호 및 발화 맥락에 대한 의존성이 높기 때문에 문장 성분을 일일이 명시적으로 드러내기보다는 편의상 함축하고 생략하는 특징을 보인다. 그러나 동일한 고맥락 언어라고 하여 한국어와 중국어의 문장 성분의 생략 양상이 동일하게 나타난다고 보기는 어려울 것이다. 이러한 관점에 착안하여 본 연구는 한국어(출발어)의 인칭대명사 주어가 중국어(도착어)로 번역되는 양상을 언어학적 관점에서 비교 대조하였으며, 한국어에서 ‘명시된 주어’와 ‘생략된 주어’가 각각 중국어에서는 어떻게 처리되는지를 ‘A명시→B명시’, ‘A명시→B생략’, ‘A생략→B명시’, ‘A생략→B생략’의 네 가지 유형으로 분류하여 면밀하게 분석하였다. 본 연구의 분석 대상인 한국 소설 《프라자호텔》은 인칭대명사 주어의 사용 양상과 관련하여 영어, 프랑스어, 일본어 등 다양한 외국어로의 A-B 번역 양상 연구가 이미 진행된 바 있기에, 본 연구를 통해 세계 언어 속에서의 중국어의 좌표를 확인해 볼 수 있었다는 점에서도 의의가 있다고 판단된다. Korean and Chinese, as prototypical high-context languages, rely heavily on nonverbal cues and shared situational knowledge. While both utilize implication and omission, their strategies for processing sentence components, particularly person subject pronouns, diverge significantly. This study delves into the translation of Korean person pronouns into Chinese, offering a comprehensive analysis of how “overtly expressed subjects” and “implicitly omitted subjects” in Korean are rendered in Chinese. It examines how Chinese translations handle pronoun use in Korean texts, classified into four categories: overt → overt, overt → omitted, omitted → overt, and omitted → omitted. Focusing on the translation of the Korean novel Plaza Hotel, this research contributes to a broader understanding of Chinese’s position within the global linguistic landscape by building upon existing A-B translation studies exploring languages like English, French and Japanese.