Null subject language
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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."
In the second sentence in Italian the subject (She) is implied. 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. Null subject languages include Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese, as well as most of these languages' relatives, and many others besides.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 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:
| 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. After that, we ate dinner." | |||||
[edit] Impersonal constructions
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. In most Romanic languages, however, "Rains" can be a sentence: Spanish "Llueve", Italian "Piove", Catalan "plou", Portuguese "chove", etc.
There are some languages that are not pro-drop but do not expect 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).
[edit] 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. Even in these languages it is sometimes possible to omit the subject, although contextual clues are usually necessary.
- "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)
Further, it is very common for imperative clauses to lack explicit subjects even in non-null subject languages. The implicit subject is then you. For example, in English:
- "Take a break; you're working too hard."
- "Shut up!"
[edit] Constructed languages
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.
[edit] See also
[edit] 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.
