Contextually optimized use of the anaphoric demonstrative ku in Korean

초록

This study examined how Korean speakers regulate the use of the demonstrative ku to maintain discourse coherence across anaphoric and bridging contexts. Framed by the tension between speaker-oriented economy and hearer-oriented clarity, we investigated how discourse-level factors, specifically reference type and contextual adequacy, shape the choice between bare and demonstrative forms in Korean referential marking. Two experiments were conducted using experimental items derived directly from Korean speakers' authentic essays, completion task (Study 1) and rating task (Study 2). Across both, ku was most frequently used in bridging contexts involving semantically less transparent relations, Circumstantial and Attributive references, and least in Thematic relations, where referents were readily inferable through argument structure. Bare noun phrases predominated when discourse support was strong, regardless of reference type. The results suggest that anaphoric marking in Korean is contextually adaptive, allowing speakers to balance economy and clarity by integrating semantic-relational complexity with contextual cues. While the findings are largely consistent with speaker-oriented economy predictions, they also reveal exploratory evidence that semantic accessibility modulates referential form choice, an issue warranting further empirical refinement. This study deepens our understanding of demonstrative use in Korean and contributes to broader discussions of anaphora, pragmatic economy, and accessibility in discourse. (c) 2026 Elsevier B.V. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

키워드