• Language and Information
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.83-96
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• 2000

In thihs paper, I investigate the different usage of a reflexive-anaphor or logophor. Some African languages which have a morphologically independent set of logophors give a clue to this dichotomy. English which does not have morphologically independent logophors employs a reflexive-self form to be used as a logophor. However, the logophors in English occur in restricted environments. On the other hand, Korean is freer than English in that it allows areflexive to be interchanged with a logophor. With this assumption, I deal with the binding in Optimality Theory. I set up the constraints-MAXlog,ana,MINlog,ana, and Ølog,ana. With these constraints, the binding in various languages are explained through constraint ranking. In addition, the long-distance binding in English is dealt with properly of we assume the dichotomy and constraint-ranking in Optimality Theory. Furthermore, this gives an explanation to reflexive and pronoun alternation in English. Also, I borrow from phonology the idea of Obligatory Contour Principle to explain the similar phenomenon in syntax. I compare English with Korean in dealing with the possessive reflexive with the recourse to The Emergence of the Unmarked Pronoun Bresnan 1997. Fnmally, the reconstruction phenomenon is accounted for with the same device.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.61-81
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• 2004

This paper will look at some grammatical phenomena which will illustrate some of the questions that can be addressed with a corpus-based approach. We will use this approach to investigate the following subjects in English grammar: number ambiguity, subject-verb concord, concord with measure expressions, and (reflexive) pronoun choice in coordinated noun phrases. We will emphasize the distinctive features of the corpus-based approach, particularly its strengths in investigating language use, as opposed to traditional descriptions or prescriptions of structure in English grammar. This paper will show that a corpus-based approach has made it possible to conduct new kinds of investigations into grammar in use and to expand the scope of earlier investigations. Native speakers rarely have accurate information about frequency of use. A large representative corpus (i.e., The British National Corpus) is one of the most reliable sources of frequency information. It is important to base an analysis of language on real data rather than intuition. Any description of grammar is more complete and accurate if it is based on a body of real data.