On the Nature of Island Effects in Korean “Double Relative” Clauses: Focusing on the Role of Contrast

Abstract

Two recent experimental studies have claimed that the island effects shown in Korean relative clause constructions are functional in nature, based on the fact that a functionally-oriented constraint has a bigger effect than a syntactic one on constraining different types of Korean relative clause constructions (RCCs). The purpose of this paper is to further investigate the nature of island effects in Korean relativization by looking at a type of RCCs different from the ones previously examined and with a different functional mechanism which has not been used by the previous works but argued to have a significant effect on Korean relativization, namely, contrast relation between a relative clause and a head NP. The results of the experiment show that, contrary to the findings of the previous works, the syntactic but not the functional approach seems to be on the right track. How the contradictory results can be reconciled is also discussed. (Kangwon National University)