diff --git a/lib/Serialization/ASTReaderStmt.cpp b/lib/Serialization/ASTReaderStmt.cpp
index 4c3e315..367f75f 100644
--- a/lib/Serialization/ASTReaderStmt.cpp
+++ b/lib/Serialization/ASTReaderStmt.cpp
@@ -627,7 +627,8 @@
 
 void ASTStmtReader::VisitInitListExpr(InitListExpr *E) {
   VisitExpr(E);
-  E->setSyntacticForm(cast_or_null<InitListExpr>(Reader.ReadSubStmt()));
+  if (InitListExpr *SyntForm = cast_or_null<InitListExpr>(Reader.ReadSubStmt()))
+    E->setSyntacticForm(SyntForm);
   E->setLBraceLoc(ReadSourceLocation(Record, Idx));
   E->setRBraceLoc(ReadSourceLocation(Record, Idx));
   bool isArrayFiller = Record[Idx++];
diff --git a/lib/Serialization/ASTWriterStmt.cpp b/lib/Serialization/ASTWriterStmt.cpp
index b1ee84b..7e8ce42 100644
--- a/lib/Serialization/ASTWriterStmt.cpp
+++ b/lib/Serialization/ASTWriterStmt.cpp
@@ -606,6 +606,8 @@
 
 void ASTStmtWriter::VisitInitListExpr(InitListExpr *E) {
   VisitExpr(E);
+  // NOTE: only add the (possibly null) syntactic form.
+  // No need to serialize the isSemanticForm flag and the semantic form.
   Writer.AddStmt(E->getSyntacticForm());
   Writer.AddSourceLocation(E->getLBraceLoc(), Record);
   Writer.AddSourceLocation(E->getRBraceLoc(), Record);