Towards the Question on the Zero Subject in English

Abstract

Introduction. The article considers the case, when no subject is present in an impersonal English sentence. Many linguists believe that the subject in this case is implicit, because the sentence preserves its predicativity. In addition, the subject “it” is sometimes substituted in impersonal English sentences by the formal particle “there”. However, the question whether this particle performs the function of subject is still open. That is why it is rather pertinent to consider all cases of subject, both explicit and implicit one, including the cases, when the sentence contains the formal particle “there”. The objective of this work is to build a formal logical model of implicit subject in impersonal English sentence. Implicit subject is often named as zero subject.Methodology and sources. The research methodology is based on traditional approaches towards studying the phenomenon of zero subject, as well as on the binomiality idea, having been developed since 1993 at ETU. On the material of English the status of the issue, whether it is eligible to consider the implicit subject as the zero one, is investigated. The examples illustrating the functional features of the implicit subject in English sentence were selected by means of the method of continuous sampling from 7 corpora. To represent the structural features of the implicit subject the method of formal logical modelling is applied.Results and discussion. The article presents the diversity of subject structures in English sentence. There is dealt with the question on the functions of the formal particle “there” in hypothetical comparison with the formal particle “it”. In this regard, a formal logical modelling of English subject is undertaken, for declarative and interrogative sentences. Herewith both independent and dependent sentences are modelled. Questions to the subject are out of the present consideration. The implicit subject has been assumed to be a “trace” of the explicit subject and may not be recognized as the absolute zero subject.Conclusion. Linguistics has elaborated a variety of original views on the reasons, why “incomplete” subjects emerge. Our language models allow, however, to come to more original and, as we hope, objective conclusions. Dependent on its environment the subject in English can be implicit fully or partly. If the subject is fully implicit, it is a strong or weak implicit semifinitive, fixed in the weak specifier. If the subject is partly implicit, it is a weak implicit semifinitive, fixed in the strong specifier. The English subject appears to be fully implicit much less frequent, than partly implicit. Making the subject fully implicit is possible by means of additional elements. Making the subject partly implicit is possible by means of the strong specifier “there”; no additional elements are then needed.