earticle

영어

Recently in the realm of generative grammar, some syntactitians including O'Neil (1995) and Hornstein (1999) among others have suggested the movement theory of control (henceforth MTC in short), which has established a diagnosis of obligatory control. Though the distribution of PRO in Korean has hardly been subject to proper consideration. the diagnosis is expected to enable us to judge the status of controlled subject. However, the fact that the diagnosis is helpful does not necessarily means that the MTC is doubtlessly correct. We can use the diagnosis provided by the MTC but deny its explanatory power on the basis of some conceptual problems to be pointed out in this paper. The main focus of this paper is put on these conceptual problems. In particular, it presents arguments against the recent movement-based approach to PRO, but in favor of case-theoretic account. In order to explore the nature of null subject in Korean, it is necessary to establish a definition that can be used to determine the possibility of the occurrence of PRO or pro as subject.