Relative Pronouns as an Accessibility Marker in Discourse

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the distributional patterns of relative pronouns and identify the pragmatic factors that affect the choice of a particular type of relative pronoun in discourse. To find out the pragmatic factors that characterize the use of relative pronouns, we examined overall types of relative pronouns employed in discourse on a corpus-based analysis, and investigated the combinational patterns of relative clauses in written and spoken discourse. The findings from the data analysis showed that relative pronouns, as an ‘accessibility marker’, can be a parameter in combining with a particular type of relative clause in discourse as follows: 1) ‘salience’ function: zero that > which or who > whom. Consequently, we claim that the choice of an antecedent-relative pronoun combination is determined by the pragmatic factors such as ‘salience’ and ‘unification’, which contribute to the facilitation of language processing and production.