Accounting for the Construal of Null Arguments in Korean

This paper investigates the construal of null arguments in Korean and Japanese, critically reviewing Abe s (2009, 2014) generalization on strict versus sloppy identity. He proposes that a sloppy identity interpretation of a null argument arises when it is not c-commanded by its antecedent (what Abe terms the anti-c-command requirement); whereas a strict identity interpretation always arises when the null argument is c-commanded by its antecedent. Showing that his generalization is not correct, we revise the generalization as follows: null arguments receive a sloppy identity reading when the constituent containing them, such as VP or TP, is in syntactico-semantic parallelism with that containing their antecedents. Otherwise, null arguments get a strict identity reading. We move on to argue that the null argument c-commanded by their antecedent cannot get a sloppy identity construal because the form-identity reconstruction of the null arguments with their antecedents for the sake of such construal induces a BC (C) violation when the latter c-command the former.