On alternative constructions for the pronoun-retention strategy in Korean: A corpus and translation-based analysis

This study explores how Korean deals with restrictions in relative clause (RC) formation. Keenan and Comrie’s (1977) judgment that Korean is a language that uses the pronoun-retention strategy has had an enduring impact on later studies. However, it is highly doubtful that the pronoun-retention strategy is used in everyday situations, since in most cases an RC with a resumptive pronoun (RP) sounds unnatural in Korean. This observation suggests that there may be an alternative way to convey the function of an RC formed on a genitive NP (genitive RC). This suggestion should be tested with naturally occurring data. In this paper, therefore, genitive RCs with an RP (GRP) are investigated in the contemporary Korean corpus to discover to what extent they are in use. Simultaneously, a Korean-English parallel corpus and data from the Bible are examined to observe how English genitive RCs are expressed in their Korean counterparts. The findings show that GRPs are rarely used in Korean. Rather, Korean tends to paraphrase the genitive RC into a non-RC or a non-genitive RC to transfer the meaning of a genitive RC.