Notes on the Absence of CP Ellipsis in Japanese and Korean: A Reply to Saito (2007)

Studies in Modern Grammar 65, 145-170. This paper explores the absence or presence of CP ellipsis in Japanese and Korean. Saito (2007) argues that in Japanese and Korean, arguments such as DPs and CPs can undergo ellipsis unlike in English since agreement is optional in these languages. He further puts forward an LF copying analysis of argument ellipsis. A couple of puzzles, however, need to be resolved. First, no extraction out of CP ellipsis should be explained. Second, the fact that CP ellipsis is sensitive to selection of matrix verb should be explained. We suggest that apparent DP and CP ellipsis in Korean are all instances of a null pronoun, the so-called pro. We reanalyze the apparent instances of DP and CP ellipsis discussed in Saito (2007), and propose that they indeed involve deep anaphora pro but not surface anaphora ellipsis.