NULL SUBJECT LANGUAGE

(Redirected from Null subjects)
In linguistic typology, a 'null subject language' is a language whose grammar permits an independent clause to lack an explicit subject. Such a clause is then said to have a 'null subject'.
For example, in Italian:
:Maria non vuole mangiare.
:''"Maria does not want to eat."''
:Non vuole mangiare.
:''[She] "Does not want to eat."''
The subject "she" of the second sentence is only implied in Italian. English, on the other hand, requires an explicit subject in this sentence.
Of the thousands of languages in the world, a considerable part are null subject languages, from a wide diversity of unrelated language families. They include Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese, as well as most languages related to these, and many others still.

Contents

Characterization

Examples

Impersonal constructions

Null subjects in non-null subject languages

The imperative form

Auxiliary languages

Interlingua

Esperanto

See also

References

Characterization

In the framework of government and binding theory of syntax, the term 'null subject' refers to an empty category. The empty category in question is thought to behave like an ordinary pronoun with respect to anaphoric reference and other grammatical behavior. Hence it is most commonly referred to as "''pro''".
This phenomenon is similar, but not identical, to that of pro-drop languages, which may omit pronouns, including subject pronouns, but also object pronouns. While pro-drop languages are null subject languages, not all null subject languages are pro-drop.
In null subject languages that have verb inflection in which the verb inflects for person, the grammatical person of the subject is reflected by the inflection of the verb, and likewise for number and gender.

Examples

The following examples come from Portuguese:

★ "I'm going home" can be translated either as ''Vou para casa'' or as ''Eu vou para casa'', where ''eu'' means "I".

★ "It's raining" can be translated as ''Está a chover'', but ''not'' generally as ''
★ Ele está a chover'', where ''ele'' would correspond to English ''it''.

★ "I'm going home. I'm going to watch TV" would only in exceptional circumstances be translated as ?''Eu vou para casa. Eu vou ver televisão.'' At least the subject of the second sentence should be omitted, unless one wishes to express emphasis, as in "[I don't care what ''you'' are doing,] ''I'' am going home to watch TV."
As the examples illustrate, in many null subject languages, personal pronouns exist, and they can be used for emphasis, but are dropped whenever they can be inferred from the context. Some sentences do not allow a subject in any form, while in other cases an explicit subject without particular emphasis would sound awkward or unnatural.
Japanese and several other null subject languages are topic-prominent languages: they require an expressed topic in order for sentences to make sense. In Japanese, for instance, it is possible to start a sentence with a topic marked by the particle ''wa''. In subsequent sentences the topic can then be left unstated and understood to remain the same, until another one is explicitly introduced. For example, in the second sentence below, the subject ("we") is not expressed again but left implicit:

Japanese text	私(わたし)達(たち) は	買(か)い物(もの) を	した.	後(あと) で	ご飯(はん) を	食(た)べた。
Transliteration	Watashitachi ''wa''	kaimono ''o''	shita.	Ato ''de''	gohan ''o''	tabeta.
Literal translation	''We'' (TOPIC)	''shopping'' (OBJ)	''did.''	''After'' (COMPL)	''dinner'' (OBJ)	''ate.''
Idiomatic translation	''"We went shopping. Afterwards, we ate dinner."''

Impersonal constructions

Main articles: Impersonal verb

In some cases (impersonal constructions), a proposition has no referent at all. Pro-drop languages deal naturally with these, whereas many non-pro-drop languages such as English and French have to fill in the syntactic gap by inserting a dummy pronoun. "''
★ Rains''" is not a correct sentence; a dummy "it" has to be added: "''It rains''", French "''Il pleut''". In most Romance languages, however, "''Rains''" can be a sentence: Spanish "''Llueve''", Italian "''Piove''", Catalan "''Plou''", Portuguese "''Chove''", Romanian "Plouǎ", etc.
There are some languages that are not pro-drop but do not require this syntactic gap to be filled. For example, in Esperanto, "He made the cake" would translate as ''Li faris la kukon'' (never ''
★ Faris la kukon''), but ''It rained yesterday'' would be ''Pluvis hieraŭ'' (not ''
★ Ĝi pluvis hieraŭ'').

Null subjects in non-null subject languages

Other languages (sometimes called non-null subject languages) require each sentence to include a subject — this is the case for most Germanic languages, such as English and German, but also in French, a Romance language, and many others. In some cases, colloquial expressions, particularly in English, less so in German, and extremely rarely in French, allow for the omission of the subject in the same way that languages such as Spanish and Russian allow using "correct" grammar:
:"Bumped into George this morning." (I)
:"Agreed to have a snifter to catch up on old times." (We)
:"Told me what the two of you had been up to." (He)
:"Went down to Brighton for the weekend?" (You)

The imperative form

Even in such non-null subject languages as English, it is standard for clauses in the imperative mood to lack explicit subjects; for example:
:"Take a break; you're working too hard."
:"Shut up!"
An explicit declaration of the pronoun in English in the imperative mood is possible, usually for emphasis but not necessary:
:"Don't you listen to him!"
French and German offer less flexibility with regards to null subjects. In French, it is neither grammatically correct nor possible to include the subject within the imperative form (the ''vous'' in the expression ''taisez-vous'' would stem from the fact that ''se taire'', ''to be silent'' is a reflexive verb and is thus the object).
In German, the informal form ''du'' may be added to the imperative in a colloquial manner for emphasis (''Mach du das'', ''you do it''). The formal imperative requires the addition of the subject ''Sie'' (as in ''Machen Sie das'') as the formal imperative form of a verb is identical to the infinitive (which also can be used as a "neutral" imperative).

Auxiliary languages

Interlingua

Interlingua, while officially a non-null subject language, sometimes allows for the omission of pronouns. This is most common with the pronoun "il", which means "it" when referring to part of a sentence or to nothing in particular. Examples of this word include
:Il pluvia.
:''It's raining.''
:Il es ver que ille arriva deman.
:''It is that he arrives tomorrow.''
"Il" tends to be omitted whenever the contraction "it's" can be used in English. Thus, "il" may be omitted from the second sentence above: "Es ver que ille arriva deman".
In practice, subject pronouns are sometimes omitted when they can be inferred from a previous sentence:
:Illa audiva un crito. Curreva al porto. Aperiva lo.
:''She heard a cry. Ran to the door. Opened it.''
The second-person pronoun is usually omitted from imperative clauses:
:Cessa lo! Stoppa lo!
:''Stop it! Stop it!''
This pronoun can be re-inserted for emphasis:
:Tu cessa lo! Tu stoppa lo!
:''You stop it! You stop it!''

Esperanto

Esperanto, while not officially pro-drop, sometimes exhibits pronoun deletion in casual use. This deletion is normally limited to subject pronouns, especially where that pronoun has been used just previously (as either a subject or object).
:Ĉu vi vidas lin? Venas nun.
:QUESTION-PARTICLE ''you see him? Comes now.''
:''Do you see him? ''He'' is coming now.''
In this case, "lin" meant "him" as an object pronoun. The omission of the subject-pronoun equivalent "li" in the subsequent sentence is grammatically logical, since it is more likely that 'he' comes than it is that 'you' come.
Occasionally, even more pronoun-shaving occurs.
:Ĉu vidas lin? Venas nun.
:QUESTION-PARTICLE ''see him? Comes now.''
:''Do ''you'' see him? ''He'' is coming now.''
The omission of "vi" ("you") from the question can be perceived as logical, especially if the question was asked in a context where only one other person (or group of people) was present.

See also

★ Agreement (linguistics)

★ Anaphora (linguistics)

★ Impersonal verb

★ Pro-drop language

References

★ Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on Government and Binding: The Pisa Lectures. Holland: Foris Publications, Reprint. 7th Edition. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1993.