The Syntax of Korean Anaphora

Abstract

From the earliest work on anaphora in transformational grammar, it has been assumed that the principles governing the organization of pronoun-antecedent'. relationships make reference to abstract features of structure. Accordingly, attempts to characterize the syntax of anaphora have exploited concepts ranging from command (Langacker 1966) and the cycle (Ross 1969) to K-command (Lasnik 1976), c-command (Reinhart 1981) and governing category (Chomsky 1981). In recent work (e.g., O'Grady 1983a, b), I have suggested that this type of approach is ill conceived and that the syntax of pronoun-antecedent relations can be better analyzed in terms of the interaction between word order and a single semantic contrast. The purpose of this paper is to show that the Korean anaphoric elements ku and caki lend themselves to a similar analysis.