Core-Oblique Distinction and Nominalizer Choice in Japanese and Korean

It has been suggested that a core–oblique distinction is not manifested in the grammatical structures of languages like Japanese and Korean, wherein both core and oblique arguments are marked by so-called case-marking particles. This study argues, based on elicitation data from Japanese and Korean as well as Japanese questionnaire data, that a core–oblique distinction in these languages is indeed reflected in the differing selection of sentential nominalizers to mark core and oblique nominalized clauses. Furthermore, this study presents an explanation for the differing selectional patterns of core and oblique marking sentential nominalizers from the viewpoints of markedness and information processing.