The thesis is based on information structure theory in order to explain how a sentence containing the marker 'ka' or 'nun' is constrained and how its meaning is differentiated depending on the contexts. For this purpose, firstly methods to be used in ...
The thesis is based on information structure theory in order to explain how a sentence containing the marker 'ka' or 'nun' is constrained and how its meaning is differentiated depending on the contexts. For this purpose, firstly methods to be used in information structure analysis are clarified, and the information structure of korean is analyzed. Analyzing Korean information structure, the thesis verified that the meanings of genericity and contrastiveness are caused by information structure but not a mere meaning differences in the marker 'ka' and 'nun'. The thesis is organized as follows.
Chapter 2 covers not only usefulness of 'given-ness' and 'about-ness' in analyzing information structure but also their limitation. Then, an argumentation is followed that 'given-ness' and 'about-ness' should be used in complementary manner to clarify the information structure. Futhermore, the three types of information structure in a sentence are examined : predicate-focus structure, argument-focus structure, and sentence-focus structure. Among these, the topic in argument-focus structure is regarded as 'open-proposition' and the topic in sentence-focus structure as 'stage topic' which is the scene on which the event is taking place.
In chapter 3, information structure in Korean is analyzed. Although 'ka' does not independently indicate whether NPs marked by 'ka' are topic or focus, 'ka' influences information structure of the sentences containg 'ka'. To be specific, 'ka' should be used to mark sentential subject as a focus of argument-focus structure, whereas it is not used to mark topic in predicate-focus structure. Also, it supported the prior researches that 'nun' indicates topic. NPs marked by 'nun' are topic regardless of the place of it in a sentence. Moreover NPs marked by 'nun' are topic even though it implies a meaning of contrast. At the last part of chapter 3, information structure of Korean sentence are categorized into predicate-focus structure and aregument-focus structure.
In chapter 4, information structure theory explained meanings of 'genericity' and 'contrastiveness' revealed in Korean sentences. First of all, information structure was used to interpret semantic meaning of genericity. Due to the different information structure caused by 'ka' and 'nun', the meaning of genericity in a sentence containing 'ka' differs from the meaning of genericity in a sentence containing 'nun'. Secondly, it was explained when NPs marked by 'ka' gets the meaning of exhaustiveness. NPs marked by 'ka' gets the meaning of it when both the sentence containing 'ka' is argument-focus structure, and NPs marked by 'ka' is a focus. Finally, the thesis covers the contrastive meaning caused by 'nun' is conversation implicature, since the topic introduced by 'nun' is not informative enough.