Towards a Choice Function Analysis for Null Arguments in Korean

Abstract

The identity of a phonologically null argument in Korean and the recovery of its informational content from its apparent antecedent have been hotly debated for the last three decades in the generative grammar literature. Employing a cancellation test in a discourse/dialogue context (Hoji 1998; Ahn and Cho 2011; Landau 2023), we first show that even a head noun as well as modifying elements including quantifiers on its apparent antecedent is not necessarily recovered for the semantic interpretation of a null argument. Considering this aspect of empirical facts on a null argument, we propose that the null argument feeds into a generic noun N-head substitution, which is in turn subject to interpretation employing an ordinary or a Skolemized choice function. In consequence, a null argument is construed as an atomic or a pluralized individual returned via such a function from the set denoted by the substituted N-head. Overall, the (Skolemized) choice function fed by the N-head substitution for a null argument offers a handle in capturing referential indeterminacy concerning its construal.