Pro‐drop and Theories ofproin the Minimalist Program Part 2: Pronoun Deletion Analyses of Null Subjects and Partial, Discourse and Semipro‐drop

Abstract

This article reviews the recent theories of pro-drop that explore the hypothesis that pro is a pronoun that is deleted in Phonetic Form (Holmberg 2005; Roberts 2010b). Since most of the empirical arguments given in favor of this hypothesis come from the partial null-subject languages, we discuss the distinctive properties of this set of languages as opposed to the (rich agreement) consistent null-subject languages. The pattern of pro-drop found in the partial null-subject languages has features in common with discourse pro-drop, which is found in languages that lack agreement (Huang 1984). Among the analyses that have been proposed in the literature on discourse pro-drop is the hypothesis that it reduces to null-NP anaphora (Tomioka 2003). This hypothesis relates discourse pro-drop with the availability of bare NPs in argument position. Here, the possibility of extending the null-NP anaphora analysis to the partial null-subject languages is considered. The article ends with a discussion of yet a fourth type of pro-drop language, the semipro-drop languages, in the light of recent developments concerning the Extended Projection Principle (Biberauer 2010; Wurmbrand 2006).