Pro-drop language

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A pro-drop language (from "pronoun-release") is the language in which certain classes of pronouns can be omitted when they are pragmatic or grammatically unacceptable (exact conditions vary from language to language, and can be very complicated). The phenomenon of "pronoun-release" is also often referred to as anaphora zero or zero. In the case of a pro-drop language, anaphora null refers to the fact that the null position has a referential nature, which means it is not a stupid pronoun. Pro-drop is licensed only in languages ​​that have a positive setting of the pro-drop parameter, allowing the zero element to be identified by the governor. In a pro-drop language with verbally affected morphology, the expression of subject pronouns is considered unnecessary because verbal inflections indicate the person and the number of subjects, so that the null subject reference can be inferred from grammatical inflections on the verb.

Although in everyday conversations there are occasions when who or what to refer can be inferred from context, non-pro-drop languages ​​still require pronouns. However, the pro-drop language allows the reference pronoun to be omitted, or phonologically void. Among the main languages, two of which may be called pro-drop language are Japanese and Korean (showing the removal of pronouns not only for the subject, but for almost any grammatical context). Chinese, Slavic, and American Sign Language also often feature a pro-drop feature. In contrast, non-pro-drop is a feature area of ​​many northern European languages ​​(see European Average Standards), including French, (standard) German, and English.

Some languages ​​may be considered only partially on a pro-drop basis because it allows removal of subject pronouns. The languages ​​without this subject cover most of the Romance languages ​​(French are exceptions) as well as all Baltic-Slavic languages ​​and to some extent Iceland. The everyday language and dialect of Germany, unlike standard languages, is also partially pro-drop; they usually allow the removal of the subject pronoun in the main clause but not in the subordinate clause.

Video Pro-drop language

History of the term

The term "pro-drop" originated from Noam Chomsky's "Lectures on Government and Binding" from 1981 as a group of properties whose "zero subject" is one (for the occurrence of pro as a predicate not of a subject in a sentence with copula see Moro 1997).

Thus, a one-way correlation is recommended between the inflectional agreement (AGR) and the empty pronoun on one side and between no agreement and an open pronoun, on the other. It should be noted that in the classical version, languages ​​that not only have the morphology of the agreement but also enable repetition of pronouns - such as Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese - are excluded, as described in the footnotes: "The suggested principle is quite common, but not applicable for languages ​​like Japanese where pronouns can be lost more freely. " (Chomsky 1981: 284, fn 47).

The term pro-drop is also used in other frameworks in generative grammar, as in lexical functional grammar (LFG), but in a more general sense: "Pro-drop is a vast linguistic phenomenon in which, under certain conditions, a structural NP may not be expressed, leading to pronominal interpretation. "(Bresnan 1982: 384).

An empty category is assumed (under government and binding theory) to be present in the vacant subject position left by pro-dropping known as pro, or as a "small pro" (to distinguish it from the "big PRO" empty category associated with non-finite verb phrase).

Maps Pro-drop language

Example

Japanese

Consider the following examples from Japanese:

?????????????????

Kono k? ki wa oishii. Dare ga yaita no?

TOPIC This cake is delicious-PRESENT. Who is SUBJECT baked-PAST EXPLAIN.?

"This cake is delicious... Who baked it it ?"

???????????

Shiranai. Ki ni itta?

know-NEGATIVE. like-PAST?

" I do not know. Does you like it ?"

The words in bold in the English translation ( them in the first row; I , you , and it in the second) appears in place of Japanese sentence but understood from the context. If a noun or pronoun is given, the resulting sentence will be correct grammatically but sound unnatural. (Japanese language learners as a second language, especially those whose first non-pro-drop language such as English or French, often provide personal pronouns where they are pragmatically unacceptable, examples of language transfers.)

Chinese

The above mentioned examples from Japanese are ready to be displayed in Chinese:

????????????

ZhÃÆ'ii kuÃÆ'ng ng ÃÆ' Â ¢ ÃÆ' Â ¢ ÃÆ' Â ¢ ÃÆ' Â ¢ ÃÆ' Â ¢ ÃÆ' Â ¢ ÃÆ'? ShÃÆ' Â © i k? O de?

This is a nice piece of DEGREE cake. Who toast-CHANGE?

"This cake is delicious... Who baked it it ?"

????????

BÃÆ'¹ zh? dÃÆ' o. X? Huan ma?

Do not know. like QUESTIONS-YES/NO?

" I do not know. Does you like it ?"

Although it is worth noting that unlike Japanese, inclusion of pronouns dropped does not make the sentence sound unnatural.

Arabic

Arabic is considered a language without subject, as demonstrated by the following example:

Arabic Text: ???? ????? ??????

Transliteration: s ?? id ghayrak, yus ?? snapping

Literary translations: help others, help you.

Automatic translation: If you help others, they help you.

Turkey

Sen-i gÃÆ'¶r-dÃÆ'¼- m

2SG-ACC view-PST- 1SG

I see you.

The subject "I" above can be easily summed up as a verb gÃÆ'¶r-mek "to be seen" is rejected in a simple first-person form. The object is indicated by the pronoun art in this case. Strictly speaking, pronominal objects are generally explicitly indicated, although often possessive endings show the equivalent object in English, as in the following sentence.

Gel-di? - im -i gÃÆ'¶r-dÃÆ'¼- n mÃÆ'¼?

coming-NMLZ-POS.1SG-ACC see-PST- 2SG Q

Does you see me come up?

In this sentence, the object of the verb is actually a coming action performed by the speaker ( geldi? Imi "my coming"), but the object in the English sentence, "me", is indicated here by the possessive suffix -im "I" in the nominal verb. Both pronouns can be explicitly indicated in the sentence for the purpose of emphasis, as follows:

Sen ben-im gel-di? -im-i gÃÆ'¶r-dÃÆ'¼-n mÃÆ'¼?

2SG 1SG-POSS come- "ing" -POS.1SG-ACC see-PST- 2SG Q

Did b b> you see my me coming up?

Swahili

In Swahili, subject and object pronouns can be omitted as indicated by a verbal prefix.

Ni -ta- me -saidia.

SUBJ.1SG -FUT- OBJ.2SG -help

I will help you you .

English

English is considered a non-pro-drop language. However, subject pronouns are almost always dropped in imperative sentences (eg, Come ). In informal conversations, pronouns can sometimes be dropped in other types of sentences, along with a few other words, especially copulas and auxiliaries:

• [Have you been there?
• [I] went to the stores. [Do you] want to come?
• Visible to the signs: [Me/We] are having lunch; [I/we will] back at 1:00 [P.M].
• What do you think [?] - I love [it]! (last only in some dialects and registers)

In a speech, when the pronoun is not dropped, the pronoun is more often reduced than other words in a speech.

Relative pronouns are relatively, as long as they are not subjects, are often dropped in a short restrictive clause: That is the person I [see].

Note that pronouns are generally limited to very informal speech and certain fixed expressions, and rules for their use are complex and vary between dialects and registers. A noteworthy example is the "dream-life" part of George H. W. Bush's address to the 1988 Republican National Convention.

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Language without subject

Modern Greek

The subject of the pronoun can often be omitted in modern Greek. Example:

??????? ?????? ?? ?????????; ?? ???? ???? ??? ?? ?????. ????? ??????? ????.

See that logs? Would be nice to fire. Really dry (literal, direct translation)

(Does) you view this log? That would be good for fire. It's completely dry. (idiomatic translation)

Romance language

Most Roman languages ​​(with the exception of French) are often categorized as pro-drop as well, mostly just in case of subject pronouns. Unlike in Japan, however, the missing subject pronoun is not strictly inferred from pragmatics, but is partially represented by the morphology of the verb, affecting the person and the number of subjects.

Spanish

In Spanish, the verb is written for people and numbers, so the expression of the pronoun is not necessary because it is grammatically exaggerated. In the following example, inflection on the verb ver, 'see', the informal signal of a single 2nd person, so the pronoun is dropped. Similarly, both from verbal context and morphology, the listener can conclude that the two second sayings refer to the log, so the speaker removes the pronoun that will appear in English as "that."

Ã,¿Ves este tronco? Sera bueno para la fogata. EstÃÆ'¡ completamente seco. (Spanish)

View this log? Would be good for a bonfire. Really dry (literal, direct translation)

(Does) you view this log? That would be good for a campfire. It is completely dry (gloss English)

Although Spanish is a pro-drop language, not all grammatical contexts allow for a zero pronoun. There are some environments that require an open pronoun. Conversely, there is also a grammar environment that requires a zero pronoun. According to Real Academia EspaÃÆ' Â ± ola , the expression or elision of the subject pronoun is not random. Instead there is a context in which the open pronoun is abnormal, while in other cases the open pronoun may or may be required.

The third person pronouns (Æ' l ©, ella, ellos), in ellas ) in most contexts can only refer to people. Therefore, when referring to things (which are not people) the explicit pronoun is usually disallowed.

The subject of pronoun can be made explicit when used for the contrast function or when the subject is the focus of the sentence. In the following example, an explicit first person pronoun is used to emphasize the subject.

Yo [y no tÃÆ'º u otra persona] creo que en eso estuvo mal.

I [and not you or anyone else] thinks it is wrong.

The subject of the pronoun can also be made explicit to clarify ambiguities arising from homophonous verb forms in the first person and the third person. For example, in the past imperfect, conditional, and subjunctive, the verb form is the same for a single person and a single third person. In this situation, using an explicit pronoun yo (first person single) or ÃÆ' Â © l, ella (singular third person) explains who the subject is, because the verbal morphology is ambiguous.

Italy

Vedi questo tronco? Andrebbe bene da bruciare. ÃÆ'Ë † completamente secco. (Italian)

View this log? Will be fine burning. Really dry (literal, direct translation)

Does you view this log? It would be suitable to burn. It is completely dry. (Gloss English)

Portuguese

Examples of removed subjects:

Esta vere tronco? Seria bomb the fogueira. Secou completamente. (Portuguese Europe)

Is to view this log? Would be good for a bonfire. Dry completely (literal, direct translation)

(Does) you view this log? That would be good for a campfire. It's completely dry. (Gloss English)

"TÃÆ'¡" (estÃÆ'¡) vendo esse tronco? Seria bomb pre fogueira. Secou totalmente. (Brazilian Portuguese)

Did you see this log? Would be good for a bonfire. Really dry (literal, direct translation)

(Does) you view this log? That would be good for a campfire. It's completely dry. (Gloss English)

The omission of the object's pronoun is also possible when the reference is clear, especially in everyday language or informal language:

Acho que ele vai rejeitar a proposta, mas pode aceitar.

Think that he went (to-) reject the proposal, but may accept it. (literally)

I think he will reject the proposal, but he can accept it .

Ainda tem macarrÃÆ' Â £ o? NÃÆ' Â £ o, papai comeu.

Still have pasta? No, dad eats. (literally)

Are there any pastes left? No, dad ate it it .

The use of object pronouns in these examples ( aceitÃÆ'¡-la , comeu-o ) will be grammatical but rather unnatural, especially in Brazil.

Ela me procurou ontem e nÃÆ' Â £ o achou.

He I searched yesterday and was not found. (literally)

He searched for me yesterday and did not find me .

Here nÃÆ' Â £ o I achou will also be possible.

A: Eu te amo; vocÃÆ'ª tambÃÆ' Â © m me ama? B: Amo, sim .

A: I you love; you also i love? B: Love-1-SING, yes. (literally)

A: I love you; do you love me too? B: Yes.

The omission of an object's pronoun is possible even when the reference has not been explicitly mentioned, provided it can be inferred. The following example may be heard in the store; reference (clothing) is obvious to the other person. In Brazilian and European Portuguese, the pronoun is ignored.

Viu que bonito? NÃÆ' Â £ o gosta? Pie comprar? (BP)

See how beautiful it is? Do not like? Can buy? (using polite second person) (BP)

Viste que bonito? NÃÆ' Â £ o gostas? Podes comprar? (EP)

See how beautiful it is? Do not like? Can buy? (using informal 2nd person) (EP)

Have you ever seen how beautiful it is? Do you like it? Can you buy it? (Gloss English)

Modern Spanish and Portuguese are also well known among the Romance languages ​​because they do not have special pronouns for a deep complement (arguments that indicate circumstances, consequences, places or ways, modify the verb but are not directly involved in the action ) or partictive (words or phrases that indicate the quantity of something). However, Medieval language had it, e.g. Portuguese hi and ende .

Compare the following examples where Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, and Romanian have zero prorations for places and particulates, but Catalan, French, Occitan, and Italian have an open pronoun for place and partic.

Special overlays attached

• "I will [ there ]!"
  • Spain ¡Voy!
  • Portuguese Vou!
  • Galician You!
  • Romanian M? duc!
  • Catalan Hi me!
  • French J ' and are gone!
  • Occitan I you left!
  • Italy Ci vado!

Queries that show quantity

• "I have four of them ."
  • Spanish Tengo cuatro.
  • Portuguese Tenho quatro.
  • Galician TeÃÆ' Â ± o catro.
  • Romanian Am patru.
  • Catalan En tinc quatre.
  • French J ' en ai quatre.
  • Occitan N ' ai quatre.
  • Italian Ne ho quattro.

Slavic languages ​​

All Slavic languages ​​behave in a manner similar to Romance's pro-drop language. Example:

???? [???]. ????. Belarusian

?????? ??. ????. Bulgarian

Vidim ga. Prilazi. Croatia

VidÃÆ'm ho. Jde. Czech

?? ??????. ?????.. Macedonia

Widz? go. Idzie. Polish

???? [???]. ????. Russian

????? ??. ??????. Serbian language

VidÃÆ'm ho. Idea. Slovak

Vidim ga. Prihaja. Slovene

???? [????]. ???. Ukraine

" I saw it. He's coming."

Here he in the second sentence is inferred from the context. In Eastern Slavic, even the objective pronoun "" "can be omitted in its present and future form (both imperfect and perfect). As with the Romance language mentioned above, the missing pronouns are not strictly concluded from pragmatics, but some are represented by the verb morphology (??? ? , ??? ??? , Widz ? , Vid im , etc...). However, the past tense of both imperfective and perfective in modern East Slavic languages ​​is influenced by gender and number than people due to the fact that current tense conjugations from copula "to be" (Russian, Ukrainian, Ukrainian) ???? , Belorussia ???? ) has been practically unused. Thus, the pronoun is often included in the form of this word, especially in writing.

Finno-Ugric language

In Finland, the inflection of verbs replaces the first and second pronouns in simple sentences, such as menen "I'm gone", Menette "you all go". Pronouns are usually left in place only when they need to be infected, eg me "us", meiltÃÆ'¤ "from us". There is a possessive pronoun, but a possessive suffix, such as -ni as in kissani "my cat", is also used, as in Kissani sÃÆ'¶i kalan ("my cat eats fish"). The peculiarity of Finnish is that the pronoun I ("we") can be dropped if the verb is placed in a passive voice (eg haetaan , the standard "is taken", colloquial "we take"). In Estonian, a Finnish close relative, the trend is less clear. It generally uses an explicit person pronoun in literary language, but this is often omitted in Estonian everyday.

Hungarian is also pro-drop, subject pronouns are used only for emphasis, for example (ÃÆ'â € n) mentem "I'm gone," and because of the exact conjugation, the pronoun can often be kept away too; for example, the question (Te) lÃÆ'¡ttad a macskÃÆ'¡t? "Did (you) see a cat?" can be answered with just lÃÆ'¡ttam "(I) see (it)", because the conjugation definitely makes the object override.

Hebrew

Modern Hebrew, like Biblical Hebrew, is a moderate "pro-drop" language. In general, subject pronouns should be included in present tense. Since Hebrew does not have a verb form expressing the present tense, present tense is formed by using the present participle (somewhat as in English I keep ). Participants in Hebrew, as with other adjectives, only decline on grammatical types and numbers (such as past tense in Russian), so:

Protector I (m.) ( ani shomer ) = ??? ???? ?

Your guard (m.) ( ata shomer ) = ??? ???? ?

He keeps ( hu shomer ) = ??? ???? ?

I (f.) guard ( ani shomeret ) = ??? ????? ?

Guard We (m.) ( anachnu shomrim ) = ????? ?????? ?

Since the forms used for present tense have no distinction between grammatical people, an explicit pronoun must be added in most cases.

In contrast, the past and tense forms of the verb form are influenced by people, numbers, and gender. Therefore, the form of the verb itself shows enough information about the subject. Subject pronouns are usually dropped, except in the third person.

I (m./f.) maintained ( shamarti ) = ????? ?

You (m. pl.) are preserved ( sh'martem ) = ????? ?

I (m./f.) will keep ( eshmor ) = ????? ?

You (pl./m.) will keep ( tishm'ru ) = ????? ?

Many nouns can take a suffix to reflect the owner, in which case the personal pronoun is dropped. In the daily use of the modern Hebrew language, the inflection of nouns is common only to simple nouns, and in many cases, the positional pronouns are used. In Hebrew, possessive pronouns are treated like adjectives and following the nouns they modify. In Hebrew the Bible, the more sophisticated noun inflections is more common than in modern usage.

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Cross-language generalization

Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Occitan, and Romanians can leave subject pronouns only (Portuguese sometimes removes object pronouns too), and they often do so even when the reference has not been mentioned. This is assisted by the person/inflection number on the verb. It has been observed that pro-drop language is a language with a rich inflection for people and numbers (Persian, Polish, Portuguese, etc.) or no change at all (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc.), but medium , French, etc.) are not pro-drop.

While the mechanism by which pronouns are open is more "useful" in English than in Japanese is unclear, and there are exceptions to this observation, it still seems to have considerable descriptive validity. As Huang said, "Pro-drop is licensed to happen where the language has full approval, or where the language has no agreement, but not where the language has impoverished a partial agreement."

Family languages ​​and other linguistic areas

Among Indo-European languages ​​and Indian Dravidians, pro-drop is a general rule although many Dravidian languages ​​do not have open verbal markers to indicate a pronominal subject. Mongolian is similar in this case to Dravidian, and all Paleosiberian languages ​​are rigidly pro-drop.

Outside of northern Europe, much of the Niger-Congolese, Khoisan languages ​​in South Africa and Austronesian languages ​​in the Western Pacific, pro-drop is a pattern prevalent in almost all linguistic regions of the world. In many non-pro-drop languages ​​Niger-Congo or Austronesian, such as Igbo, Samoan and Fiji, however, subject pronouns do not appear in the same position as nominal subjects and are mandatory, even when the latter is present. In the more eastern Austronesian languages, such as Rapa Nui and Hawaiian, subject pronouns are often omitted even though no other morpheme of the subject exists. The Australian Pama-Nyian language also usually removes subject pronouns even when there is no explicit expression of the subject.

Many Pama-Nyungan languages, however, have a clause, which is often attached to nonverbal hosts to express the subject. Other languages ​​from Northwestern Australia are all pro-drop, for all classes of pronouns. Also, the Papuan language of the New Guinea and Nilo-Sahara East African languages ​​is pro-drop.

Among the native languages ​​in America, pro-drop is almost universal, as expected of a character that is generally polysynthetic and marks the language. It usually allows the eling of all pronouns of the object as well as the subject. Indeed, most reports on Native American languages ​​show that even strict pronouns use is very rare. Only a few Native American languages, mostly isolate languages ​​(Haida, Trumai, Wappo) and the Oto-Manguean family are known for typically using subject pronouns.

Pragmatic Inference

Chinese classical performances are broadly not just dropping pronouns but also any term (subject, verb, object, etc.) Pragmatically, it provides a very succinct character in the language. However, it should be noted that Classical Chinese is a written language, and such words do not necessarily represent spoken language or even from the phenomenon of the same language.

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See also

• Language without subject

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References

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Further reading

• Bresnan, Joan (ed.) (1982) Mental Representation of Grammar Relationships, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Chomsky, Noam (1981) Lecture on Government and Binding: The Pisa Lectures. Holland: Foris Publications. Reprint. 7. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1993.
• Graffi, Giorgio (2001) 200 Years of Syntax. Critical Survey, John Benjamins, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
• Moro, Andrea (1997) Promotion of predicate. Noun phrases predictive and structural clauses theory, Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
• Rizzi, Luigi (1982) Problems in Italian Syntax, Foris, Dordrecht.
• Krivochen, Diego and Peter Kosta (2013) Eliminate Empty Categories. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
• Jaeggli, Osvaldo, and Ken Safir (1989) Null Subject Parameters. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

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External links

• List of languages ​​including pro-drop (PD) or non-pro-drop (NPD) status.

Source of the article : Wikipedia