Honorific Agreement Guides but Doesn’t Govern in Ambiguity Resolution

This study examines how Korean speakers resolve relative clause attachment ambiguity, focusing on the role of honorific agreement. Korean honorifics encode social hierarchy through morphosyntactic marking but are pragmatically motivated, illuminating the interaction of grammar and social information in processing. Using a self-paced reading task and a comprehension measure, this study tested whether honorific marking functions as a strong morphosyntactic cue, such as number or gender agreement, or as a soft interpretive bias. Comprehension results showed a consistent high attachment preference modulated by honorific compatibility, suggesting honorifics operate as soft cues. Online reading times showed no early effects of honorific marking, indicating delayed attachment until sufficient structural and pragmatic information became emerged. Pragmatic expectations shaped interpretations even without explicit honorifics. These findings support an integrative model in which multiple linguistic and social cues are flexibly coordinated in real-time comprehension.