• Language and Information
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.55-68
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• 2003

Most of the previous approaches to English agreement phenomena have relied upon only one component of the grammar (e.g., either syntax, or semantics, or pragmatics). This paper argues that interrelationships among different grammatical components play crucial roles in such phenomenon too (cf. Kathol 1999 and Hudson 1999). The paper proposes that, contrary to traditional wisdom, English determiner-noun agreement is morpho-syntactic whereas subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement are reflections of index agreement (cf. Pollard and Sag 1994). The present hybrid analysis of English agreement shows the importance of the interaction of different components of the grammar in accounting for English agreement phenomena. In particular, once we allow morphology to tightly interact with the system of syntax, semantics, or even pragmatics, we could provide a solution to some puzzling English agreement phenomena. This allows a more principled theory of English agreement.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2024

This study investigates the fixed and random factors affecting response patterns of wh-scope interpretations in Gyeongsang Korean. It employed logistic mixed-effects regression models to analyze responses from 24 participants who listened to 40 pre-recorded stimuli from 40 different speakers. The stimuli consisted of an embedded wh-phrase and an interrogative ending marker, "-nkiko," thereby forming a wh-question, specifically a matrix wh-scope. Participants repeated the test three times. The study found that the prominence level of a prosodic phrase composed of an embedded verb and a complementizer was inversely related to responses with wh-questions, as demonstrated through multiple regression analysis in Yun. The test trial significantly impacted the number of responses with wh-questions, increasing from 50.3% in the first trial to 58.8% and 61.2% in subsequent trials. Examination of random subject effects revealed two main factors influencing responses: morpho-syntactic constraints and prosodic structural integrity. These two factors demonstrated the potential to be inversely weighted. Analysis of random stimulus effects suggested that the prominence level had limited effects on response patterns with each stimulus primarily eliciting one type of responses across trials.

• Language and Information
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.19-36
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• 2015

Honorific agreement is one of the main properties in languages like Korean, playing a pivotal role in appropriate communication. This makes the deep processing of honorific information crucial in various computational applications such as spoken language translation and generation. This paper shows that departing from previous literature, an adequate analysis of Korean honorification needs to involve a system that has access not only to morpho-syntax but to semantics and pragmatics as well. Along these lines, this paper offers a constraint-based HPSG analysis of Korean honorification in which the enriched lexical information tightly interacts with syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic levels for the proper honorific system.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.1-11
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• 2023

This study investigated the response time and patterns of categorical perception of the wh-scope of an embedded clause with the non-bridge verb, "gung-geum hada 'wonder'," in the matrix verb phrase in Gyeongsang Korean. Using the same procedure as Yun (2022), 72 responses and response times for each stimulus were collected from 24 participants over the course of three trials. The stimuli were recorded readings of 40 speakers (20 male, 20 female). Context was provided to induce a matrix scope interpretation of the embedded wh-phrase in the target sentence. We sorted the 40 stimuli according to the number of matrix scope responses each received, and charted the response times for each stimulus. Although there was considerable overlap for the different types of wh-scope interpretations, there was a clear difference in categorical perception between the matrix and embedded scopes. The 24 participants also differed in their categorical perceptions. The results suggested that response time and wh-scope interpretation were not directly related and that two main weighted factors affected wh-scope interpretation: morpho-syntactic constraints and prosodic structural integrity. The weighting of each of these factors was inversely correlated and varied among subjects.