Further Arguments for Argument Ellipsis

Abstract

This paper argues for the necessity of ellipsis in deriving null arguments in Korean by challenging the recent view that all null arguments are invariably unpronounced overt pronouns. We demonstrate that the pronoun analysis falls shorts of capturing the full range of interpretations associated with null arguments, based on extensive empirical evidence involving sloppy interpretations in disjunction and conjunction, as well as interpretive patterns of indefinites and Negative Polarity Items. Taken together, this evidence indicates that the interpretive equivalence between null arguments and pronouns does not always hold. We further show that the relevant interpretations are straightforwardly accounted for under the ellipsis analysis and argue that argument ellipsis is required, alongside pro, to fully capture the diverse interpretive patterns of null arguments in Korean.