A Non-isomorphism Approach to Null-Argument Anaphora in Korean

Abstract

The paper mainly focuses on NAA based on the contention that Korean doesn’t have ‘-ha’(do) VPE types corresponding to English VPE, and thus that NAA constructions with no internal structure should not be analyzed as VPE in Korean, and leads to a conclusion that VPE anaphora corresponding to English VPE is not available in Korean at all. I also argue that the availability of sloppy readings cannot be taken as a diagnostic of identifying the empty position of NAA constructions, and thus further claim that since NAA is controlled by a discourse context, it need not be syntactically parallel to its antecedent, showing that sloppy readings cannot be obtainable from NAA. The paper also deals with do-so anaphora in Korean to discuss on the availability of sloppy readings, Finally, I argue that NAA can function as a non-specific pro-form one of English by showing that NAA can be interpreted as a non-specific one depending on the antecedent of the context.