Phonetics and Speech Sciences (말소리와 음성과학)

Korean Society of Speech Sciences (한국음성학회)
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A perceptual study of the wh-island constraint in Seoul Korean

서울말의 wh-섬 제약 지각 연구

  • Yun, Weonhee (Department of English Language and Literature, Keimyung University)
  • 윤원희 (계명대학교 영어영문학과)
  • Received : 2021.06.04
  • Accepted : 2021.06.21
  • Published : 2021.06.30
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Abstract

This study investigated the status of the wh-island constraint in Seoul Korean. The syntactic movement of a wh-phrase out of an embedded sentence so as to have wide scope at LF is known to be invalid as it violates the wh-island constraint, but there have been studies in which such a movement was possible when the sentence is read with a wh-intonation. We conducted perceptual tests in which subjects were asked to select an answer after listening to each of the four types of interrogative sentences. Three of them were with 'Nugu-leul', which is an accusative form of the wh-phrase 'who' as well as an indefinite form. The fourth sentence contained the name of a person. 'Nugu-leul' and the noun were positioned in the same embedded sentence to see whether the subjects accepted a matrix scope interpretation of the wh-phrases. Response time was transformed to normalized log response time and checked to find any differences in the time taken to select the answers depending on different types of interrogative sentences. The results showed the subjects had a definite preference for the matrix scope interpretation for the sentences with a wh-intonation. The response time required to select the matrix scope interpretation was longer than for any other type of interrogative sentence. We concluded that the wh-island constraint in Seoul Korean is weak.

wh-섬 구조는 내포문에 있는 의문사 구가 모문의 작용역을 갖을 수 없도록 하는 제약이다. 서울말에서 내포문 의문사 구가 모문의 작용역으로 해석할 수 없다고 알려져 있으나 의문사 억양으로 발화될 경우 모문 작용역 해석도 가능하다고 보고되었다. 청취 실험을 통하여 서울말에서 의문사 구의 모문 작용역 해석이 가능한지 알아보았다. 내포문에 '누구를'을 넣어 만든 세 종류의 의문문, 즉 부정 대명사와 내포문 작용역을 갖는 판정 의문문과 의문사 억양으로 발화된 모문 작용역 해석이 가능한 설명 의문문을 자극으로 준비하고 비교를 위해 일반 명사를 사용한 판정 의문문 문장도 함께 실험하였다. 피험자는 자극 문장을 듣고 '네/아니오'를 선택하거나 아니면 설명 의문문을 선택하도록 지시하였다. 피험자의 대답과 함께 선택에 소요된 반응 시간을 함께 기록하여 함께 분석하였다. 분석 결과 83.7%의 피험자가 모문 작용역 해석을 받아들이는 결과를 보여주었고 반응 시간에서 모문 작용역 문장에 대한 선택이 정답과 오답을 포함하여 가장 긴 소요 시간을 보여주었다. 이를 통해 서울말은 약한 wh-섬 제약이라고 할 수 있다.

Keywords

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