This study discusses topic and focus constructions in spoken Korean within the framework of information structure. Information structure is a part of grammar that deals with the relation between linguistic forms and the mental states of speakers and hearers. Since the different formal realizations of topic and focus constructions in Korean are due to differences in speakers' assumptions about the mental states of hearers, research on Korean topic and focus constructions falls under the proper domain of information structure. Five different topic constructions in Korean are reviewed and their discourse contexts are analyzed; zero pronouns, bare NPs, and right-dislocated NPs are generally used for discourse-active topic referents, and the maliya-construction and nun-marked NPs are generally used for topic referents that are not discourse-active. Sometimes, active topic referents are also marked with --nun when the topic referents have more salient topics already established in the discourse or speakers are considering potential alternatives to the active topic referents. Topics are divided into ratified and ungratified topics according to whether their status as topics is assumed to be taken for granted by hearers. Among the five topic constructions in Korean, zero pronouns, bare NPs and right-dislocated NPs express ratified topics, while the maliya-construction and nunmarked topics express unratified topics. The marker --ka, which has been long regarded as a subject indicator, is reanalyzed, and it is suggested that --ka marks not only the subject but also argument focus and sentence focus. Accessible or active referents can sometimes be marked with --ka, constituting sentence-focus constructions. In those constructions, the propositional content of the sentences expresses some unexpected or surprising event. Also, frequent occurrences of the maker --ka in presupposed subordinate clauses are examined, and it is suggested that --ka can be used as a mere subject indicator, losing its function of indicating focus in presupposed clauses with topic-comment construals, in which there is no actual focus. / text

In recent discourse-oriented studies of grammar, it has been claimed that the information structure of discourse is composed of two levels, foreground and background, and that linguistic categories such as tense and aspect have as their functions the sorting of information into these two levels. However, this study of Korean narrative finds that Korean tense and aspect distinguish not between foreground and background, but between ordinary and significant information within foreground and background. It was found that a total of five levels of information are signalled by the choice of tense and aspect in Korean narrative: ordinary background information, significant background information, ordinary mainline events, significant mainline events, and peak.Ordinary background information is indicated by the imperfective aspects (progressive, resultative, continuative, iterative, and inchoative) with the past tense. Significant background information is indicated by either the progressive the resultative with the historical present tense. The completive or inceptive aspects, both of which are perfective, combine with the past tense to mark ordinary mainline events. These shift to the progressive or resultative with the historical present to indicate significant mainline events. Peak is indicated by the completive aspect as well as tense-shift and other stylistic and linguistic devices such as onomatopoeia, concentration of participants, change of the normal pace of the story, or change from narration to dialogue. Tense and aspect are thus interrelated in signalling function and degree of significance of information.This study demonstrated two major points. First, Korean distinguishes five levels of information in narrative discourse. Second, these are differentiated by the choice of tense and aspect, among other devices. Two methodological consequences are that linguistic categories such as tense and aspect may be fully analyzed only in a discourse-based study and that mode of discourse cannot be analyzed without reference to tense and aspect.

Thesis by publication. / Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Department of Linguistics. / Includes bibliographical references. / Introduction -- Translation error analysis: a systemic functional grammar approach -- Systemic functional approach to the issues of Korean theme study -- A corpus based study on the system of THEME in Korean -- Using systemic functional text analysis for translator education: an illustration with a foucus on the textual meaning -- Readability analysis of community translation: a systemic functional approach -- Conclusion. / Most linguistic communities have textual resources for organizing experiences into coherent text. The way that the resources are used may not be the same but vary from one language to another. This variation can be a source of translation difficulty in rendering a natural-reading translation. This thesis investigates the question of how the choices of Theme, which is one of the main textual resources, have an impact on textual meaning in translation between English and Korean. -- The premise underlying the study is that a translation that is not inaccurate in lexical choices may still read as unnatural to the target readers if a careful consideration is not given to Theme choices at the clause level and Thematic development at the text level in the source and target texts. This assumption is derived from systemic functional linguistic (SFL) theory, which postulates that Theme at the clause level plays a critical role in constructing a text into a coherent linear whole at the text level. This brings in another equally important question of the study: how Theme works in Korean. No research has been done to investigate the system of THEME in Korean from a systemic functional point of view or on the basis of extensive discourse analysis across a range of registers. Therefore, this study investigates the THEME system in Korean using a corpus consisting of a number of authentic Korean texts in three different text types. -- These two coherent questions are investigated in five self-contained journal articles included in the thesis. Two of them have been published (Chapters 2 and 5), one has been submitted for publication (Chapter 6) and the other two will be submitted (Chapters 3 and 4). The journal article format for thesis has recently been introduced at Macquarie University as an approved alternative to the traditional thesis structure. / Chapter 1 introduces a number of preliminary issues for, and information relevant to, the study such as research questions and background, the corpus, the underlying theoretical assumption and anticipated contributions to this area of research. Chapter 2 is a report of a pilot-project that motivated the current study. It discusses how to use text analysis based on systemic functional grammar to analyze translation errors/issues and provides systematic explanations relating to such issues. Chapter 3 reviews issues that have been raised by Korean linguists in relation to the study of Theme in Korean and provides suggestions on how to resolve these issues drawing on systemic functional theory. Chapter 4 describes the features of Korean THEME system based on the analysis of clausal Themes and thematic development of 17 texts of the corpus. Chapter 5 is a discussion about the pedagogical efficiency of using systemic functional text analysis for translator education with a particular emphasis on the textual meaning in translation. Chapter 6 attempts to analyze the readability issue of community translations in Australian context. Chapter 7 concludes the thesis with a number of suggestions for further study. --As the research investigates the question of textual meaning in translation, which has not been rigorously studied, and the question of Theme in Korean, which has never been studied on the basis of a corpus and of discourse analysis, it is anticipated that this work will make considerable theoretical and practical contributions in both fields. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xiv, 329 leaves ill. (some col.)