Gap in 'Gapless' Relative Clauses in Korean and Other Asian Languages

摘要

This paper attempts to argue that the so-called gapless relative clause (GRC) in Korean (Chinese and Japanese as well) can best be dealt with by the Generative Lexicon Theory (GLT) put forward in Pustejovsky (1995). There arises a superficial conflict in the construction: the GRC, with no apparent gap, contains a relative verb that does not directly relate to the head noun in terms of cause-effect relation required between the GRC and the following head noun. The paper shows that this incomplete realization of the cause-effect relation can be fully recovered from the lexical-semantic(-pragmatic) information specified under the GL framework. Thus, the qualia structure of GLT can successfully fill the meaning of the best hidden relative verb in the GRC for the correct interpretation.