Content area
Abstract
Our communication process is composed of the flow of information between interlocutors. It is well known that the information is not always delivered in explicit ways or merely by literal meanings. In addition to the literal meanings of the lexical items and their combination into utterances, both speakers and listeners calculate pragmatic factors such as a context in which the utterance is stated and general pragmatic procedures such as obedience to the Maxims of Conversation (Grice 1975) (Potts 2008). There are linguistic devices that do not have the semantic lexical meaning but that interact with non-linguistic factors of the utterance and generate implicit meanings.
In this dissertation, I discuss one of these types of linguistic devices, a particle — nun in Korean combined with a prosodic accent. Not only the identification of meaning and function of — nun but also the realization of it combined with an accent is studied. I will provide the results of a series of three experiments, all of which investigate the realization of —nun both in its aspect and in its linear placement within a sentence. Through this, I will raise a doubt on the well known idea that the particle —nun marks the informational status of 'Topic'. The experimental results suggest that we should separate —nun from marking an information structure component 'Topic' and urge reconsideration of this well-studied particle.
I suggest that the function of —nun is to generate implicit propositions. The discussion focuses on the accented cases since the function of an accent, Focus, instigates the implicit propositions generated by —nun. One of the implicit propositions is existential presupposition. The existential presupposition generated by —nun establishes a structure that I call Contrast Structure, which explains the formation of the contrastive meaning of — nun. Pragmatically, the generation of an existential presupposition renders an apparently irrelevant or infelicitous utterance felicitous and vice versa through the process of informative accommodation in some contexts. In this analysis, the particle —nun works in the borderline of semantics and pragmatics (the term from Kadmon 2001).
