Choice of nominative and topic markers in Korean discourse

Abstract

In two written sentence completion experiments, I tested whether the choice of nominative and topic markers is subserved by the same mechanisms as anaphor choice and referent choice in Korean. I found that morphological marker choice was sensitive to various factors including connective, grammatical role, and verb semantics, whereas anaphor choice was sensitive only to grammatical role. I also found that morphological marker choice did not systematically vary with verb semantics unlike referent choice. These findings reveal two important properties of referential form production. One is that morphological marker choice relies on different mechanisms than underlie anaphor choice and referent choice. Another is that connective plays a significant role in determining referential form. Despite its role in referent choice and pronoun comprehension, connective has received little attention in current models of referential form production. The current study is the first to systematically test the effect of connective on referential form choice and to demonstrate its effect on morphological marker choice. By revealing how morphological marker choice is related to anaphor choice and referent choice, and identifying the factors that influence morphological marker choice, the results of the study improve our theoretical understanding of morphological marker production and reference production.