Null Subjects Research Articles

Pro-drop in Standard Arabic

The correlation between Pro-drop and the nature of verbal morphology is a universal principle. This syntactic phenomenon has been parameterized on the basis of verb inflection. Rich verbal inflection has been advocated to allow pro-drop subject. On contrast, if a language structure maintains a low level of verbal morphology, pro will not be dropped. This paper comes to show that Standard Arabic (SA) is a partial pro-drop language. It has null subject even with rich verbal inflection structure. Nonetheless, the paper shows that in some forms of imperative sentence that have poor verbal inflection, but the subject is optional. On the other side, and on the basis of minimalism, pro is asserted to have features that must be checked in the course of derivation. These features are case and agreement that can be valued at Specifier-head configuration to pro. The process of checking optimally tries to draw evidence for the minimum level of morpho-syntactic features that pro in SA carries.

Pronominal vs. anaphoric pro in Kannada

Kannada licenses a pronominal pro and an anaphor pro in root and subordinate clauses. In the subordinate clauses, pro’s person feature largely determines its pronominal/anaphoric status. Accordingly, there are four types of pro, each with a distinct referential property. The 1st and 2nd person pros allow pronominal and anaphoric interpretations. In their pronominal reference, they refer to the speaker and the listener, respectively. In their anaphoric reference, they refer to the matrix subject and the object, respectively, irrespective of the latter’s person feature, which results in a feature mismatch between pro and its antecedent. The 3rd person pro allows only pronominal interpretation. Kannada quotative verbs report direct speech. The null subjects in the embedded clauses of reported speech are basically pronominal because they are ‘copies’ of the pronominal subjects in direct speech. Accordingly, the embedded verbal inflection corresponds to inflection in direct speech, which results in a feature clash between pro and its antecedent. The fourth type, a null anaphor, occurs in non-argument endu-clauses. It is bound by an NP in the matrix with which it shares its F-features. It is the semantic relation between the non-argument and main clauses that explains the presence of an anaphoric pro here.

Subject Pronoun Expression in Spanish: A Cross-dialectal Perspective ed. by Ana M. Carvalho, Rafael Orozco, and Naomi Lapidus Shin

Reviewed by: Subject Pronoun Expression in Spanish: A Cross-dialectal Perspective ed. by Ana M. Carvalho, Rafael Orozco, and Naomi Lapidus Shin Sarah E. Blackwell Carvalho, Ana M., Rafael Orozco, and Naomi Lapidus Shin, eds. Subject Pronoun Expression in Spanish: A Cross-dialectal Perspective. Washington, DC: Georgetown UP, 2015. Pp. 258. 2015. ISBN 978-1-62616-170-2. Subject Pronoun Expression in Spanish: A Cross-dialectal Perspective is a welcome volume comprising important contributions on Spanish subject pronoun expression (SPE) by scholars focusing on monolingual Spanish varieties (part 1), Spanish in contact with other languages (part 2), and Spanish in contexts of acquisition (part 3). Each part contains four chapters, and all of them present quantitative analyses of SPE. In the preface, Ricardo Otheguy sketches the ground-laying work of early variationist sociolinguists, which sets the stage for quantitative-variationist studies of subject personal pronouns (SPPs) by Spanish pronombristas. In their “Introduction,” the editors identify questions addressed in the volume, including whether or not SPE is consistent across language varieties or susceptible to contact-induced change, and how it develops during language acquisition. These questions provide a unifying theme for the subsequent chapters. In chapter 1, Alfaraz analyzes Santo Domingo Spanish to determine whether its higher pronominal expression rate indicates a change in progress toward obligatory SPE in Dominican Spanish. She finds that variables conditioning SPE in other Spanish varieties (e.g., switch reference, singular verbs) also condition SPE in Dominican Spanish, but that second person singular references most strongly favor overt tú expression. Additionally, gender affects SPE, with Santo Domingo women favoring overt pronouns only slightly more than men. Nevertheless, overall SPP rates are similar to those of other Caribbean varieties, suggesting that Dominican Spanish is not unique in this regard. [End Page 486] In chapter 2, Orozco analyzes a corpus of Colombian Costeño (Barranquilla) Spanish and reports SPE rates comparable to those of other Caribbean varieties. Priming and tense/mood/aspect (TMA) effects on Costeño SPE also reflect results from earlier studies. The imperfect indicative most clearly favors SPE in Costeño, thus supporting the hypothesis that morphologically ambiguous verb paradigms promote more pronoun expression. Additionally, while perception verbs most strongly favor overt SPPs in Costeño, among mental activity verbs, only creer and saber favor expression. These findings suggest the need for further research on the effects of verb semantics on SPE. Lastra and Martín Butragueño (chapter 3) investigate SPE in Mexico City (MC) Spanish and report a low rate of overt SPPs in their MC corpus, a finding consistent with other “mainland” Spanish varieties. Grammatical person and number emerged as the strongest constraint on SPE in MC Spanish, which is also congruent with results form earlier studies. Textual genre has significant effects on subject expression (e.g., argumentation favors subject expression most strongly in the MC data). Interestingly, younger MC speakers use fewer overt subjects than older speakers, which contrasts with the direction of change evidenced in other Romance languages, suggesting a need for more research on age effects. Posio examines a corpus of conversational Peninsular Spanish in chapter 4, hypothesizing that frequently occurring verb forms, with or without SPPs, tend to appear in formulaic sequences having discourse-pragmatic functions with recognizable SPP expression or omission. For instance, the parenthetical epistemic downtoner no sé nearly always occurs with a null subject, while creo, when used to present opinions, has the highest SPP expression rate of the verbs Posio analyzes. Posio’s analysis of the discourse-pragmatic functions of frequent verb forms suggests that such forms may amplify (and possibly skew) the effects of constraints on SPE. Furthermore, his observation that constructions like ¿sabes? and ya sabes have low overt SPP rates in Peninsular Spanish, while formulaic tú sabes is quite frequent in Latin American varieties, highlights the need for future cross-dialectal studies of SPE in formulaic sequences to determine their contribution to dialectal differences in SPP usage. Part 2 begins with Torres Cacoullos and Travis’s chapter in which they compare the effects of cognition verbs, subject continuity, and priming on Spanish yo and English I expression in Colombian Spanish and American English. They show that first person singular expression in...

The Old English Gloss to the Lindisfarne Gospels: Language, Author and Context eds. by Julia Fernández Cuesta and Sara Pons-Sanz

Reviewed by: The Old English Gloss to the Lindisfarne Gospels: Language, Author and Context eds. by Julia Fernández Cuesta and Sara Pons-Sanz Greg Waite Fernández Cuesta, Julia and Sara Pons-Sanz, eds, The Old English Gloss to the Lindisfarne Gospels: Language, Author and Context ( Anglia Book Series, 51), Berlin, De Gruyter, 2016; cloth; pp. xii, 432, R.R.P. €99.95, US $140.00, £74.99; ISBN 9783110449105. This volume contains papers from a 2012 workshop on the Lindisfarne gloss held at the University of Westminster, with the addition of others. The aim is to gather different perspectives (palaeography, glossography, history, linguistics, and philology) to understand better 'the socio-historical context and the cultural and intellectual milieu in which [the gloss] was produced' (p. 1). The Old English (OE) continuous interlinear gloss inserted into the Lindisfarne Gospels by Aldred in the later tenth century, as an act of reverence and devotion, has long attracted the attention of historical linguists and those studying the book's cultural history. It provides key evidence for the Northumbrian dialect of OE, in an era when literary production was dominated by the West Saxon standardized written dialect exemplified in the works of Ælfric, Wulfstan, and others trained in the monastic reform era. In Part I, 'The Gloss in Context', five papers address wider cultural and historical issues. Michelle Brown further develops ideas advanced in her earlier study The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality and the Scribe (British Library, 2003), arguing that Aldred's gloss must be understood against a background of Anglo-Scandinavian political relations, where it was necessary to assert 'Englishness' and Christian character in the North. Jane Roberts investigates Aldred's colophon, and its evidence for the Gospels' origin at Lindisfarne, [End Page 196] revisiting her hypothesis that a vernacular poem served as a source of evidence for Aldred's claims. She also considers points of comparison and contrast between Aldred's glosses to the Gospels, and the Durham Collectar. Philip Rusche's examination of Aldred's glossing indicates that he was influenced mainly by older traditions of Psalter glossing from the ninth century, rather than new developments in the period of monastic reform. Paul Cavill, on the other hand, finds that Aldred's marginalia appear to embody a reforming spirit and a desire for his monastic community to embrace material poverty and purity of heart. Stuart Brookes presents a survey of the varieties of letter-form in the gloss. Aldred's work betrays knowledge of both Square minuscule and Carolingian letter-forms, in addition to his principal script, a somewhat old-fashioned Insular minuscule, and his practice embodies a creative response to the script variety he encountered in the Latin text. Part II, 'The Language of the Gloss', begins with Robert McColl Millar's examination of noun phrase morphology simplification. This paper, along with some others, shows how developments found in early Middle English are already occurring in Northumbria, in contrast with southern OE dialects. Marcelle Cole's paper on present-tense verb morphology contributes to another important line of enquiry. Building on studies by Brunner, Blakeley, and others, she shows how the distribution of variant forms indicates that Aldred's work does not reflect a uniform idiolect throughout, and must have been based on earlier source materials. Luisa García García examines the use and morphological status of causative (-jan) verbs, concluding that the pace of change in inflectional morphology is not paralleled in derivational morphology. María Nieves Rodríguez Ledesma examines morphology and word order for genitive phrases, and George Walkden null subjects as evidence for syntactic variation. Julia Fernández Cuesta compares Skeat's edition with MS Cotton Nero D.iv, highlighting problems of using the print version for linguistic analysis. Part III, 'Glossing Practice', contains an analysis of multiple glosses to present tense forms of beon by Christine Bolze, and another by Sara Pons-Sanz on the principles of ordering of double or multiple semantic glosses. Patrizia Lendinara examines words left unglossed by Aldred, arguing that informed principles are at work here, rather than gaps in his knowledge. Karen Jolly brings her expert knowledge of the Durham Collectar to bear upon Aldred's work...

Early null and overt subjects in the Spanish of simultaneous English-Spanish bilinguals and Crosslinguistic Influence

This study assesses the scope of the Crosslinguistic Influence (CLI) hypothesis’ predictions with regard to early bilingual acquisition. To this end, we analyze longitudinal corpus data from four bilinguals attesting the acquisition of subjecthood (null versus overt; preverbal versus postverbal) and the pragmatic adequacy of early null and overt subjects in a null-subject language (i.e., Spanish) in combination with a language differing in its pro-drop parameter setting (i.e., English). Our results indicate that CLI barely affects the development of subjects in the null-subject language at the initial stages, namely at the outset of null and overt subjects, and in turn support the Separate Development Hypothesis. Our bilingual cohort patterns with their Spanish-acquiring monolingual peer in that both groups display comparable proportions of null subjects as well as acquisitional trajectories of null and overt subjects at the early stages of acquisition. Much like monolinguals, bilinguals begin to produce preverbal and postverbal subjects concurrently. The bilingual children and the monolingual child of this study actually produce extremely high rates of pragmatically appropriate covert and overt subjects, which are for the most part target-like from the start, thus pointing to the absence of CLI effects. In light of monolingual and bilingual data, the paper also revisits the hotly debated issue of the ‘no overt subject’ stage of Grinstead (1998,et seq.), its existence in child Spanish being questionable.

When discourse met null subjects

In this paper a novel view of the distribution of null subjects in Spanish is explored in which the discourse category which the antecedent of pro is analysed. Implementing Frascarelli’s (2007) work, I propose that the crucial condition to meet is for the null subject to be coreferential with an Aboutness-Shift Topic, which must be either an explicit or null copy in the local domain where pro is inserted. When null, this antecedent can refer back to any type of discourse category. The analysis is supported by an experiment run among native speakers of Spanish.

Nullsubjekte im Mittelniederdeutschen

Abstract In spite of growing interest in recent years, the syntax of Middle Low German (MLG) remains an extremely underresearched area. In light of recent research showing early North West Germanic languages to be partial null subject languages (Axel 2005; Walkden 2014; Kinn 2016; Volodina/Weiß 2016), the question arises where MLG is positioned in this respect. The present article presents novel data showing that MLG had referential null subjects (RNS) and can be classified as a partial null subject language. Based on a quantitative and qualitative corpus analysis of their syntactic distribution, we argue that two types of RNS must be distinguished in MLG, null topics in SpecCP and null clitics on C.

Ambiguidade pronominal em orações adverbiais do português europeu: crianças vs. adultos

This paper investigates how European Portuguese children interpret null and overt subject pronouns of adverbial clauses when there are two potential antecedents in the main clause, in order to find out how early the preferred readings are acquired in European Portuguese for each type of pronoun. Our results show that the control group of adults behaves as expected, choosing more often subject antecedents for null subjects and non-subject antecedents for subject pronouns, but children are predominantly at chance. The preferred interpretation for null subjects is acquired earlier than the one for overt pronouns and anaphoric contexts are acquired earlier than cataphoric ones. We attribute this developmental pattern to the fact that null pronouns are morphosyntactically more deficient and less dependent on semantic, discourse and prosodic factors, and to processing constraints related to the linear position of the antecedent.

Remarks on the Parameters of Argument Ellipsis: A New Perspective from Colloquial Singapore English

AbstractIn this paper, I investigate the nature of parameters responsible for the distribution of argument ellipsis (AE) from the perspective of Colloquial Singapore English (CSE). One recent theory by Saito (2007) suggests that this process, technically analyzed through LF‐Copy, is blocked by ϕ‐feature agreements of T with subject DPs and v with object DPs, respectively. I provide evidence from Case marking, VP‐ and CP‐ellipsis, and Exceptional Case‐Marking constructions that in CSE both functional heads possess abstract ϕ‐feature agreement, as in Standard English. The agreement theory predicts that neither the null subject nor null object position should permit AE in CSE. The fact, however, is that AE is blocked in subject positions but permitted in object positions. I propose that AE in CSE is controlled, instead, by the presence of an operator–variable topic chain, formed to reflect the language's topic‐prominent profile, as manifested in its definite subject preference. This analysis is supported by the observation that the null subject position allows AE in CSE as long as it is not linked to the topic position, as in the case of the hanging topic construction. The alternative analysis suggests that the cross‐linguistic distribution of AE is conditioned by (at least) two parameters: agreement and topichood.

The acquisition of L2 English non-null arguments by L1 Thai learners

The study explored the acquisition of L2 English non-null arguments by L1 Thai learners, that is, whether they were able to recognize and correct sentences with null arguments. Two variables which presumably affected the acquisition, namely clause types and prepositional phrases (PPs), were employed. A grammaticality judgment task (GJT) was administered to 31 intermediate and 31 advanced undergraduate L1 Thai students. The results suggested that sensitivity to recognize null arguments increased with higher proficiency. Paired-samples t-tests were performed to determine whether the two variables affected the acquisition. For the intermediate group, it was found that both clause types and PPs affected their judgments. We propose that perceptual salience could account for the intermediate participants' preference for null embedded subjects over null matrix subjects and that the lack of argument/adjunct knowledge could account for the intermediate participants' preference for null object sentences followed by a PP over null object sentences without a PP following. For the advanced group, it was found that clause types affected their judgment. We propose that informal styles of communication influenced the advanced participants' preference for null matrix subjects.

Referential vs. non-referential null subjects in Middle Norwegian

This paper investigates the relationship between referential and non-referential null subjects in Middle Norwegian. It argues that overt, non-referential subjectdetarose before the loss of referential null subjects, contrary to the predictions of much previous work. A diachronic analysis compatible with the empirical findings is sketched out.

Subject omission/production in child bilingual English and child bilingual Spanish: the view from linguistic theory

Abstract In bilingual child language acquisition research, a recurrent learnability issue has been to investigate whether and how cross-linguistic influence would interact with the non-adult patterns of omission/production of functional categories. In this paper, we analyze the omission/production of subject pronouns in the earliest stage English grammar and the earliest stage Spanish grammar of two English–Spanish simultaneous bilingual children (FerFuLice corpus in CHILDES). We base this analysis on Holmberg’s (2005, Is there a little pro? Evidence from Finnish. Linguistic Inquiry 36. 533–564) and Sheehan’s (2006, The EPP and null subjects in Romance. Newcastle: Newcastle University PhD dissertation) formulation of the null subject parameter and on Liceras et al.’s (2012, Overt subjects and copula omission in the Spanish and the English grammar of English-Spanish bilinguals: On the locus and directionality of interlinguistic influence. First Language 32(1–2). 88–115) assumptions concerning the role of lexical specialization in cross-linguistic influence. We have conducted a comparative analysis of the patterns of production/omission of English and Spanish overt and null subjects in two bilingual children, on the one hand, versus the patterns of production/omission of one monolingual English child and one monolingual Spanish child, on the other. The results show that while there is no conclusive evidence as to whether or not English influences the higher production of overt subjects in child bilingual Spanish, the presence of null subjects in Spanish has a positive influence in the eradication of non-adult null subjects in bilingual English. We argue that in a bilingual situation, as compared to a monolingual one, lexical specialization in one of the languages of the bilinguals (the availability of an overt and a null realization of the subject in Spanish) facilitates the acquisition of the other language.

Null subjects in Middle English

This article investigates the occurrence and distribution of referential null subjects in Middle English. Whereas Modern English is the textbook example of a non-null-subject language, the case has recently been made that Old English permits null subjects to a limited extent, which raises the question of what happens in the middle period. In this article we investigate Middle English using data drawn from thePenn–Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English Proseand the newParsed Corpus of Middle English Poetry, aiming to shed light on the linguistic and extralinguistic factors conditioning the alternation between null and overt subjects. Generalized mixed-effects logistic regression and random forests are used to assess the importance of the variables included. We show that the set of factors at play is similar to that found for Old English, and we document a near-complete disappearance of the null subject option by the end of the Middle English period.

Never saw one – first-person null subjects in spoken English1

While null subjects are a well-researched phenomenon in pro-drop languages like Italian or Spanish, they have not received much attention in non-pro-drop languages such as English, where they are traditionally associated with particular (written) genres such as diaries or are discussed under a broader umbrella term such as situational ellipsis. However, examples such as the one in the title – while certainly not frequent – are commonly encountered in colloquial speech, with first-person singular tokens outnumbering any other person.This article investigates the linguistic and non-linguistic factors influencing the (non-) realisation of first-person singular subjects in a corpus of colloquial English. The variables found to contribute to the observed variation are drawn from a variety of linguistic domains and follow up on research conducted in such different fields as first language acquisition (FLA), cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics and language variation and change. Of particular interest is the finding regarding the link between null subjects and complexity of the verb phrase, which patterns in a clearly linear fashion: the more complex the verb phrase, the more likely is a null realisation. Not discussed in this form before, this finding, given its high significance and its robustness in light of alternative coding, may prove to be an important candidate for inclusion in future studies on (English) null subjects.

Subject pronoun expression in Mexican Spanish: ¿Qué pasa en Xalapa?

This study is the first variationist analysis of subject personal pronoun expression (SPE) in the Spanish of Xalapa, Mexico. The overall pronominal rate (25%)—the highest such rate found in Mexican Spanish so far—also constitutes one of the highest in a mainland Spanish variety. Six predictors—four internal and two external—significantly condition SPE. The internal conditioning—congruent with what occurs elsewhere—reveals grammatical number and person of the subject as the strongest predictor. It also shows that verb class has tendencies similar to those found in other communities. However, further analysis uncovers that lexical frequency provides more definite answers regarding how verbs condition SPE, as within the copulative verb class category ser ‘be’ favors overt subjects but estar ‘be’ favors null subjects. Moreover, the unusually robust effect of age sets Xalapa Spanish apart from most other varieties. Interestingly, the pronominal rate among teenagers (11%)—below the lowest overall pronominal rate anywhere—is consistent with what occurs in other Spanish varieties such as Colombian, European, Dominican, and Mexican. These findings call for further research on the effects of verb semantics and age on SPE.

Language processing, acceptability, and statistical distribution: A study of null and overt subjects in Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract Two experiments and a corpus study tested whether Brazilian Portuguese (BP), which has been argued to be shifting from null subjects toward overt subjects indeed shows a comprehension preference for reduced over fuller anaphors for salient antecedents, and whether comprehension is better explained as an imbalance between processing cost and discourse function (pragmatics account), or simply the frequency of different constructions (usage-based account). Sentences with overt pronouns were read slower (Experiment 1) but rated more acceptable (Experiment 2) than sentences with null pronouns when the antecedents were salient. Sentences with repeated names showed weaker effects than overt pronouns. The corpus analysis confirmed that BP is changing, but that null subjects are not yet infrequent, especially in academic writings. We argue that these results reflect a “pronoun avoidance strategy” in BP related to its transitory state, and propose a new view that integrates elements from both the pragmatics and usage-based accounts.

Pronoun deletion in Hong Kong English and Colloquial Singaporean English

ABSTRACTThe question how substrate features and extralinguistic conditions interact in shaping contact varieties is an ongoing debate in the study of world Englishes. The present study tries to describe substrate influence by identifying an areally marked morphosyntactic feature, subject pronoun deletion, and comparing its occurrence and structural conditioning in two closely related varieties of English in Southeast Asia. Our results show that even in the typologically similar linguistic habitats of Hong Kong and Singapore, the different degrees of nativisation are reflected in the frequency and distribution of null subjects in the two relevant local varieties.

Cross-linguistic Variations of pro Licensing Conditions

Null subject languages are generally called pro-drop languages. According to the generative syntactic analysis, languages can be divided into pro-drop and non-pro-drop languages. Subject Agreement (AgrS) is argued to be the licensing condition for the null subject languages. Nevertheless, pro-drop licensing conditions may vary in different languages. This paper analyzes various null subject languages with different pro-drop licensing conditions from cross-linguistic perspective.

Null Subject in Lubukusu and the Extended Projection Principle

<p class="1"><span lang="X-NONE">This paper analyses the null subject phenomenon in Lubukusu with special reference to the extended projection principle (EPP). The paper looks at conditions under which null subjects are allowed in this language. Lubukusu data is self-generated and the analysis is based on the principles and parameters approach (P&P) and the Minimalist program (MP). From the analysis of the data generated, it is shown that null subjects in Lubukusu are syntactically active categories. Though covert, they are Arguments that carry semantic content, hence satisfying the EPP requirements. Null subjects occur in this language because of its rich morphology; that is, whenever the subject agreement features are marked on the verb or any of the determiners, then the overt subject can be dropped without any negative implication on the grammaticality of the structure. Being an Argument position, it is theta-marked and as such the unpronounced null subject is pro (a pronoun). This being the case, it is argued that Lubukusu is a consistent null subject language and that in null subject constructions, the EPP is observed.</span></p>

Null Subjects in Early Icelandic

This paper investigates the possibility of subject omission in the history of Icelandic, including the syntactic and pragmatic conditions under which it could arise. Based on regression analysis of substantial data drawn from the IcePaHC corpus, we provide robust quantitative support for Hjartardóttir's (1987) claim that null subjects persist until a very late stage in Icelandic. We also argue, contra Sigurðsson (1993), that only one licensing mechanism is needed for null subjects in early Icelandic. Moreover, on the basis of the position of the null subjects and their person features, we argue that the modern stage, where (predominantly 3rd person)pro-drop yields to a system permitting topic drop of all persons, arises in Icelandic in the early twentieth century.*