As noted on the "Downloadable" page at this HP, "[t]his paper is an attempt to articulate what was behind my 1998 LI paper on null objects in Japanese." The LI paper argues against the view that the null object construction (NOC) in Japanese is or can be an instance of VP ellipsis, analogous to null VP in English. The handout posted in [14083] (hence the part of my "Surface and Deep ..." paper that deals with English) can thus be understood as an attempt to demonstrate that the NOC in Japanese and do that, do the same thing, and do it in English share a great deal of properties, in sharp contrast to VP ellipsis in English (that should indeed be considered as an instance of surface anaphora) (and CM-comparative in Japanese).

It is interesting that some researchers are still assuming that the NOC in Japanese can be an instance of surface anaphora.

Given the possibility that VP ellipsis in English can be an instance of deep anaphora, one might argue that the 'unexpected' properties (under the VPE analysis) of the NOC in Japanese are not so unexpected, after all. But it must be recalled that VP ellipsis in English does exhibit properties of surface anaphora, i.e., the Mix reading patterns, and such is not the case with the NOC in Japanese.