How much is English relativization constrained pragmatically

A number of recent experimental works on the nature of island effects have focused on the role of syntactic and processing factors, but little attention has been paid to pragmatic factors. The main purpose of this paper is to test the role of a pragmatic constraint, called the Characterization Constraint (CC), in English relativization. Based on an acceptability judgment task conducted on two types of relative clause constructions (RCCs), it is claimed that CC plays a significant role in constraining relativization in English. In addition, the paper further discusses two interesting issues: (1) difference between the two types of tested RCCs in terms of acceptability and (2) difference between Korean and English with respect to the degree of influence of CC in relativization.