Null Argument Reconstruction in Korean Elderly Speech: A Data-driven Reassessment of Predicate Ratios
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The present study reexamines clause density in elderly Korean speech by reassessing predicate ratios in light of the pervasive use of null arguments. Predicate ratio has been treated as a proxy for clause density, yet its validity is uncertain in pro-drop languages where covert arguments are common (Kim et al. 2025; Ok et al. 2025). To address this issue, the current study constructed a 34,000 ecel dataset by manually restoring phonologically unrealized arguments, thereby enabling a more accurate assessment of predicate based syntactic measures. The results show that null argument use increases with age and is higher among less educated elderly speakers than among their more educated counterparts. Once null arguments are taken into account, age and education related differences in predicate ratios diminish substantially, suggesting that underlying syntactic elaboration remains more stable than surface measures imply. These findings align with broader claims in aging and language research (Hardy et al. 2017, 2020, 2022; Peelle 2019) that, despite quantitative reductions in sentence production due to shifts in working memory and general cognitive resources, core syntactic competence continues to be preserved in late adulthood.
Abstract
The present study reexamines clause density in elderly Korean speech by reassessing predicate ratios in light of the pervasive use of null arguments. Predicate ratio has been treated as a proxy for clause density, yet its validity is uncertain in pro-drop languages where covert arguments are common (Kim et al. 2025; Ok et al. 2025). To address this issue, the current study constructed a 34,000 ecel dataset by manually restoring phonologically unrealized arguments, thereby enabling a more accurate assessment of predicate based syntactic measures. The results show that null argument use increases with age and is higher among less educated elderly speakers than among their more educated counterparts. Once null arguments are taken into account, age and education related differences in predicate ratios diminish substantially, suggesting that underlying syntactic elaboration remains more stable than surface measures imply. These findings align with broader claims in aging and language research (Hardy et al. 2017, 2020, 2022; Peelle 2019) that, despite quantitative reductions in sentence production due to shifts in working memory and general cognitive resources, core syntactic competence continues to be preserved in late adulthood.