Semantic Resolution of Zero and Pronoun Anaphors in Korean Paper Title

In this study, we apply Walker et al.’s (1994) centering account of Japanese zero elements to Korean correspondents, and we evaluate whether their analysis provides the correct interpretation of zeros. We investigate whether Korean pronouns and zeros are treated as the same sort of entities during semantic interpretation. In a psycholinguistics experiment, we test Walker et al. (1994) by comparing the interpretation of pronouns and zeros in the same position of grammatical subject. Our results show that Walker et al.’s centering analysis does not accurately predict the semantic resolution of Korean zeros. However, the data do suggest that the antecedents of subject pronouns and subject zeros are resolved in the same way. Upon closer inspection of our items, some items were more likely than others to elicit a subject interpretation. This suggests that the presence of an uncontrolled factor or factors might be obscuring true differences in zero and pronoun resolution. We claim that a change in grammatical role and possibly a change in topic may elicit a different interpretation for zeros and pronouns even though both elements are resolved in the same way in certain contexts.