Interpretation and Function of the Korean Demonstrative ku

In this paper, we present a cognitive- pragmatic view of a Korean demonstrative ku in discourse. The Korean demonstrative provides a good domain in which to analyze the relationship between deictic and anaphoric phenomena because ku can not be identified apart from the context in which it is used. The distinction between these two is interpreted in terms of the interaction between the context and the mental representation systems, using Givon’s (1995) theory of contextual sources of definites. Contrary to the previous assumptions that Korean demonstrative pronouns are classified into three lines, this interaction manifests that any study of the Korean demonstrative ku should be conducted along five lines of description to avoid the pitfall of oversimplification. Hence ku can be interpreted by collaboration between the current visible speech context or the preceding context and the generally shared knowledge as well as the three kinds of basic contextual sources. This collaboration is required to identify the Korean demonstrative NP that does not have an explicit referent in the current or previous context. We also show that, under appropriate circumstances, ku can function like an English definite article.