Identifying Null Arguments with Ellipsis

Abstract

Korean allows the null argument construction. In the literature there has been a debate on whether the null argument involves ellipsis (the ellipsis approach) or pro, which can be construed as a bare nominal (the pro approach). In this squib, we argue, following Park and Bae (2012), that the null argument can also involve ellipsis, presenting some new data that can only be accounted for by the ellipsis approach. However, we attempt to argue that the exact identity reading of the null argument can only be obtained by ellipsis, by refuting one of the strong arguments,i.e., the continuation argument, often presented in favor of the pro approach (Hoji 1998, Ahn and Cho 2010; 2012a,b).