An Information-Theoretic Analysis of Object Omission in Korean and Chinese Double Object Constructions

This study experimentally compares the acceptability of object omission in double object constructions in Korean and Chinese and offers an account of the observed patterns within an information-theoretic framework. Based on native speaker judgment data (N = 74; 37 per language group) analyzed using mixed-design ANOVA, the results show that no statistically significant differences were found among direct object omission, indirect object omission, and the simultaneous omission of both objects in Korean. In contrast, Chinese speakers rated sentences with indirect object omission alone as significantly less natural than other omission types. No significant cross-linguistic difference was observed when both objects were simultaneously omitted. These findings are interpreted in relation to the distribution of information across the utterance rather than solely in terms of argument deletion. Object omission thus appears to reflect usage-based principles that regulate processing cost and favor relatively uniform information density, highlighting the role of information distribution in shaping omission strategies.