Gap in “Gapless” Relative Clauses in Korean and Other Asian Languages

Copyright 2012 by Jeong-Shik Lee and Chungmin Lee 26th Pacific Asia Conference on Language,Information and Computation pages 640–645 Gap in “Gapless” Relative Clauses in Korean and Other Asian Languages Jeong-Shik Lee Chungmin Lee Department of English Language and Literature, Wonkwang University, 344-2 Shinyong-dong, Iksan 570-749, South Korea Department of Linguistics, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak- gu, Seoul 151-742, South Korea jslee@wku.ac.kr clee@snu.ac.kr Abstract This paper attempts to argue that the so-called gapless relative clause (GRC) in Korean (Chinese and Japanese as well) can best be dealt with by the Generative Lexicon Theory (GLT) put forward in Pustejovsky (1995). There arises a superficial conflict in the construction: the GRC, with no apparent gap, contains a relative verb that does not directly relate to the head noun in terms of cause-effect relation required between the GRC and the following head noun. The paper shows that this incomplete realization of the cause-effect relation can be fully recovered from the lexical-semantic(-pragmatic) information specified under the GL framework. Thus, the qualia structure of GLT can successfully fill the meaning of the best hidden relative verb in the GRC for the correct interpretation. Keywords: “gapless” relative clauses, Generative Lexicon Theory, qualia structure, agentive/telic role, Korean � � 1. Introduction In Korean (Chinese and Japanese as well) the so-called gapless relative clauses (GRC) have been discussed in Cha (1997, 2005), J. Lee 2012, and others, representatively illustrated in (1, 2, and 3) (Adn = adnominal). (1) cause-effect relation with sensory head noun [sayngsen-i tha-nun] naymsay fish-Nom burn-Adn smell ‘the smell that comes from fish burning’ (2) cause-effect relation with non-sensory head noun [thayphwung-i cinaka-n] huncek typhoon-Nom pass-Adn trace ‘the trace left after a typhoon hit’ (3) cause-effect relation with non-natural phenomenon [apeci-ka so-lul phal-un] ton father-Nom ox-Acc sell-Adn money ‘the money obtained by selling an ox’ It is observed that there exists a semantic cause-effect relation holding between the GRC and its modifying head noun: the content of the adnominal GRC constitutes cause and the denotation of its head noun effect. Without the cause-effect relation, the GRC is not allowed (e.g., [sayngsen-I tha-nun] ?*hyangki (‘fragrance)/?*moyang (‘appearance’) /*huncek (‘trace)). GRC is different from a typical relative clause (RC) like (4) containing a gap which is externally realized as a head noun. (4) [apeci-ka � phal-un] so (�=so ‘ox’) father-Nom sell-Adn ox ‘the ox that father sold’ Also, GRCs are different from noun complements in examples like (5) in that they are not a complement of the head noun: (5) [apeci-ka so-lul phal-ass-ta-nun] father-Nom ox-Acc sell-Past-Dec-Adn somwun/ sasil/cwucang rumor/fact/claim ‘the rumor/fact/claim that father sold an ox’ Thus, GRCs in Korean are different from regular RCs, and they are not noun complements; therefore, as most researchers claim, GRCs are like gapless clausal modifiers for the following head nouns (Yoon, JH 1993, Cha 1997, 1998, 2005 in Korean and papers for Japanese and Chinese). In this paper, we for the first time claim that for the correct, coherent interpretation in GRCs like (3), for example, the required cause-effect relation should …

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