The Syntax and Interpretation of Korean Semantically Defective kes as an Instance of Deep NP Anaphora

• Published in: Lanaguage Research Vol. 59; no. 3; pp. 219 - 236
• Main Author: Park, Myung-Kwan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul 서울대학교 언어교육원 01.12.2023; Seoul National University; 언어교육원
• Subjects: Anaphora; Argument structure; Cleft constructions; Construal; Korean language; Noun phrases; Nouns; Relative clauses; Semantics; Syntactic structures; Syntax; Word meaning; 언어학; kes; internally-headed RC; deep NP anaphora; stance noun; cleft
• ISSN: 0254-4474; 2586-7113
• DOI: 10.30961/lr.2023.59.3.219

In Korean, the dependent noun kes, meaning "thing" in English, is widely used in different structures. It is typically used as a semantically contentful generic non-human noun projection, acting as a relative clause (RC) head NP in RC constructions or playing a generic-stance noun-like role in the conventional complement clause-noun head construction, where it constitutes an instance of deep anaphora. It is also used like a function word devoid of semantic content; in such cases, it also acts as an instance of deep NP anaphora whose semantic content is, at the interpretational/construal stage, inherited from a relevant element in the structural context where it occurs. In this study, we argue that the latter use of kes is found in constructions such as internally-headed RCs and cleft structures. The main argument presented here is that structurally, only one kind of kes is represented as an instance of deep anaphora; however, it can be used either as a content noun or a semantically defective function-word-like noun.