Neural Correlates for Pragmatic Inference

Shin-ae Yoon

(Konkuk University)

In this study, I reassure the neural correlates in pragmatics inference processing during conversational implicature using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

  To this end, the linguistic experiment was conducted; this experiment was modified from the study where pragmatic inferential processing was required. The condition comprises question and answer conversation pairs which are differentiated in the degree of implicitness and the unrelated condition in which semantic integration or association with world knowledge is not required.

Behavioral differences were influenced by the implicit degree in both accuracy and reaction time. The results suggested that implicitness increased the difficulty of discourse comprehension, and recruited further processing, such as semantic and the world knowledge integration while the unrelated condition showed relatively high accuracy and short reaction time, indicating that there was no difficulty in doing the task. With respect to the neuroimaging results, not only did this study confirm the brain cortical regions involved in language processing established in earlier neurolinguistic research, but also identified subcortical region, caudate activation. These results suggest that subcortical region such as caudate as well as the cortical regions are actively involved in the linguistic processing. I will introduce the basic principles of functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI), its uses in linguistic research and the experimental design and method with the results in this study.

The Interface of Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics

in the Use of Medially Positioned Conjuncts in English

Wonseok Kim

(Yonsei University)

Since the 1970s, discourse markers have drawn a lot of attention from scholars working in the fields such as pragmatics, discourse analysis, language acquisition, and language pedagogy. This has resulted in a rapidly expanding body of research. However, there have been relatively few studies about the medial placement of discourse markers, especially a particular subtype known as conjuncts. Most previous studies simply stated the obvious fact that these discourse markers or conjuncts occur initially, medially, or finally in a sentence. The purpose of this research, in contrast, is to explain the medial placement of these conjuncts in detail. In order to provide a comprehensive explanation for their medial placement, this study used the British National Corpus (BNC). Since the targeted discourse marker subtype exists in large numbers, only 10 items were selected for the purposes of a qualitative and quantitative research. As a result of this analysis, this research suggests the following multi-dimensional explanation for the medial placement of the conjuncts: the constraints placed on actual discourse marker presence; the minimal argument; the free shifting condition; optimal approximation; information partitioning and focus; syntactic form; semantic typology; medial placement constraint; and style. These various factors operate in parallel in order to position the conjuncts in a suitable medial position in a sentence, revealing the interface of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

An Empirical Study of Internally Headed Relative Clauses in Korean

Sanghoun Song

(Korea University)

This study concerns a linguistic phenomenon for which theories are ample and pretty old but data are scant and relatively new; namely, Internally Headed Relative Clauses in Korean. IHRCs have been one of the hot issues since the early days of Korean generative grammar, but an empirical base for establishing the theoretic foundations remains unsettled. The erstwhile studies have yet not formed a consensus even as to whether Korean indeed employs IHRCs. The other major issues include whether and how IHRCs in Korean (if exist) differ from Externally Headed Relative Clauses and which grammatical factors constrain the construction. When the basic puzzles have been left unresolved in theory for quite a while as such, using a data-based method is particular rewarding in language research. Thus, the present study aims to provide an empirical bottom line for a livelier discussion about IHRCs in Korean. To this end, the present study explores a spoken corpus and conducts acceptability judgment testing followed by a survey and interview with the participants. This methodological pipeline leads us to verify that there exists an individual variation across speakers in acceptability judgments and interpretation of IHRCs in Korean. The conditions for IHRCs in Korean include distinction between individual-level and stage-level, grammatical and lexical aspects of the predicates in the relative and main clauses, animacy of the relativized head, and indexation of kes in IHRCs. Accordingly, we classified the IHRCs in Korean into the five subtypes, three of which are genuine types and the others are pseudo types. In addition, via the survey and interview it is revealed that IHRCs and EHRCs in Korean differ in implications; the former involves immediacy, simultaneity, adjacency, specificity, and particularly relevancy whereas the latter conveys a neutral meaning.