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Chapter 16 - The Processing of a Long-Distance Dependency in Korean: An Overview

from Part III - Morphology and Syntax

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2022

By
Nayoung Kwon
Edited by
Sungdai Cho  and
John Whitman
Sungdai Cho
Affiliation:
Binghamton University, State University of New York
John Whitman
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

Chapter 16 examines the processing of three types of long-distance dependencies: a forward syntactic dependency, a backward syntactic dependency, and a backward referential dependency. First, backward syntactic and referential dependencies show a processing asymmetry of subject/object gap sentences similar to that seen in forward syntactic dependencies, and they all elicit similar brain responses (Kwon 2008; Kwon et al. 2010, 2013). However, given that views among some typologists that backward dependencies are much more limited in distribution (Dryer 1992) and subject to more linguistic constraints (Lakoff 1968; Kuno 1972; Mittwoch 1983) than forward dependencies, processing of a backward dependency may be more difficult or less efficient (cf., Hawkins 1994, 1999, 2004). Likewise, the parser is “more cautious” in the processing of referential dependencies (Kwon and Sturt 2014). Finally, dependency formation may be affected by the relative importance of linguistic cues in a given language. In Korean, dependency formation is more strongly motivated by discourse context than in English (Kwon and Sturt 2013).

Keywords

long-distance dependencyforward dependencybackward dependencycataphorapredictive processingsyntactic dependencyreferential dependencyprodiscourse
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics , pp. 458 - 486
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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