Earticle

The terms ‘theme’ and ‘topic’ in information structure have been used without conceptual distinction. So there was conceptual confusion in many discussions. This paper suggests that it is necessary to analyze how the topic-comment structure introduced by Lambrecht(1994) is related to the theme-rheme structure discussed in Halliday(1967) in Korean sentences. Based on the fact that the most important property of the theme is sentence-initial and that of the topic is aboutness, it is pointed out that the sentence-initial constituent of a sentence is the theme and the topic is an active element about which new information is added to the listener. A preposed object with clitic -(n)un in the sentence-initial is analysed as not a topic but a contrastive focus in Korean. And the sentence-initial that represents the possessor and possession marked with -(n)un is not only a topic as a whole but also its possessor could be a topic.

This study introduces the following English amalgam cleft and attempts to offer an adequate analysis for this construction: He needs a break is what he needs. One popular analysis posits a Topic-Comment structure in which this sentence consists of two independent finite clauses linked by the copula is. This study, however, observes that the apparent finite clause preceding the copula displays the properties of the root clause and thus claims that this part is not really an independent clause linked with the following wh-clause. Under the Topic-Comment analysis, the copula is regarded as a Topic marker. But this study claims that it is a usual copula that appears in clefts in general. The analysis that reflects the above claims is offered as follows: He needs [FocP a break [TP pro is [what he needs] TP] FocP]. This structure well captures the fact that the [DP a break] is understood as the direct object of the matrix verb need as well as the subject of the copula is. The discussion of the study advocates for the direct complementation analysis involving FocP, against the previous Topic-Comment analysis. Further, this study extends the proposed analysis to a similar construction named subject contact relatives, showing that amalgamation of the two apparent clauses is in fact widely made through FocP complementation.

Previous functional-typological studies have proposed a topic-comment analysis of so-called double/multiple subject/nominative constructions in Korean. This paper critically examines this widespread view and proposes a clausal predicate analysis. Particularly, this paper builds on Kim’s (2022) Radical Construction Grammar (RCG) analysis by providing theoretical basis for positing a clausal predicate and an account of how the construction can take different information structures. The analysis proposed in this paper also has important implications for linguistic typology. Particularly, it calls for reconsideration of Li & Thompson’s (1976) classification of world’s languages into four types based on subject vs. topic prominence.

본 연구는 젠더 갈등으로 대두된 기업의 위기 상황에서 온라인 커뮤니티 이용자들의 정체성 대립과 이에 따른 주제와 귀인 양상의 변화를 파악하고자 했다. 이를 위해 2021년 일어난 GS25의 남성혐오 논란 사례에 초점을 맞춰 해당 사안이 남초 커뮤니티와 여초 커뮤니티에서 각각 어떠한 주제적 특성으로 다뤄지는지 13,319건의 댓글을 수집해 토픽 모델링으로 분석했다. 우선, 댓글의 주제적 특성을 포착하여 젠더 갈등 맥락에서의 안티-페미니즘 주제와 페미니즘 주제로 구분한 결과, 커뮤니티의 집단 정체성은 GS25 위기와 관련한 담론의 젠더 편향성과 조응하고 있음을 확인했다. 즉, 커뮤니티에서 집단 정체성은 댓글을 통해 재확인되고 강화되며 젠더 갈등 이슈에 대한 댓글로 배타적 담론을 형성한 것이다. 또한, 위기에 대한 책임귀인을 추론하여 커뮤니티에서 어떠한 귀인 양상이 펼쳐지는지 탐색한 결과 기업에 대한 책임 추궁의 내러티브가 남녀 대결과 혐오의 서사로 변화했음을 발견했다. 젠더화된 온라인 커뮤니티에서 귀인이 어떻게 분화하는지에 따라 기업 위기가 집단 정체성에 따른 갈등 양상으로 변모한 것이다. 나아가, GS위기의 원인을 기업에 내재한 문제로 여기는 내부 귀인이 젠더 갈등의 내러티브에 묻히게 되며 상대적으로 GS25에 대한 책임 공방이 사그라들었다는 점 또한 밝혀냈다. 본 연구의 결과는 기업 입장에서 위기를 대처하기 위한 전략 수립에 필요한 근거를 제공하고, 학술적으로는 온라인 집단 정체성의 대립이 책임귀인과 어떠한 관계를 맺는지 분석하여 관련 논의 확장에 기여한다.

This study aims to understand the identity conflicts of online community users and the changes in topics and attribution in the context of a corporate crisis with gender conflicts. To this end, we focused on the case of GS25’s man-hating controversy in 2021 and collected 13,319 comments to analyze the thematic characteristics of the issue in male-oriented and female-oriented communities using topic modeling. First, by capturing the thematic charac- teristics of the comments and categorizing them into anti-feminist and feminist topics in the context of gender conflict, we found that the collective identity of the male and female communities is aligned with the gender bias of the discourse around the GS25 crisis. In other words, the community‘s collective identity was reaffirmed and reinforced through comments, creating an exclusionary discourse with comments on issues of gender conflict. We also inferred attributions of responsibility for the crisis and explored how attributions played out in the community, finding that the narrative of holding companies accountable shifted to a narrative of gender confrontation and hate. The differentiation of attribution in gendered online communities transformed the corporate crisis into a conflict based on group identity. Furthermore, we found that the internal attribution of the cause of the crisis as a problem internalized by the company was buried in a narrative of gender conflict, and that the debate over responsibility for the GS25 has relatively muted. The findings of this study provide a basis for companies to formulate crisis response strategies, and contribute to the academic literature by analyzing how online collective identity conflicts relate to responsibility attribution.

이 논문은 한국어 문장을 주제부와 언급부로 나누어 분석하는 것이 한국어 문장의 다양한 현상을 설명하는 데 유용함을 보이는 것을 목적으로 한다. 주제부는해당 문장이 무엇에 대하여 이야기하고 있는지 나타내는 부분으로서, 담화상의주제가 문장 안에 실현되는 자리이다. 언급부는 주제에 대하여 새로운 정보를 제공하는 부분이다. 문장을 주제부와 언급부로 구분하면 다음과 같은 현상을 새로운 시각으로 바라볼 수 있다. 첫째, 조사 ‘은/는’은 주제부의 끝에서는 주제를 표시하고, 언급부 안에서는 대조를 표시한다. 둘째, 소위 대조 주제는 언급부 내에서실현되는 요소로서 주제보다는 초점의 성격을 강하게 가진다. 셋째, 분열문은 초점화라기보다는 주제화라고 할 수 있으며 ‘∼ㄴ 것은 ∼이다’ 형식만 진정한 분열문에 해당한다. 이처럼 주제부와 언급부의 자리를 설정하면 한국어 문장의 여러가지 현상이 구조에 기인하는 것임을 알 수 있다.

The purpose of this paper is to show that analyzing Korean sentences by dividing them into a topic part and a comment part is useful in explaining various phenomena of Korean sentences. The topic part is a part indicating what the sentence is talking about, and is a place where the topic in the discourse is realized in the sentence. The comment part is a part that provides new information on the topic. It is possible to provide a new perspective on the following phenomena by dividing a sentence into a topic part and a comment part. First, the josa eun/neun marks the topic at the end of the topic part and a contrast within the comment part. Second, the so-called contrast topic is an element realized within the comment part and has a character of focus rather than topic. Third, the cleft sentence can be said to be a topicalization rather than a focalization, and only the form of ‘∼n geoseun ∼ida’ corresponds to a genuine cleft sentence. If the positions of the topic part and the comment part are posited in this way, it can be seen that various phenomena of Korean sentences are due to the structure.