A0175
Jan Terje FAARLUND
The Nature of Pro and the Acquisition of Subjects
This paper argues that partial null-subject languages differ from ‘full’ null-subject
languages in the properties of pro. The change from null-subject to obligatory subject
involves the loss of a lexical item pro. Null subjects are considered pronouns with no
phonological substance, pro, which may receive abstract case and theta-role, and which
are subject to language specific referential properties and binding conditions. Pro may
have specific or non-specific reference, or both, depending on the language. In some
languages pro may also function as a complement, and thus receive other cases than just
nominative. The differences between various kinds of null-subject languages are thus
due to different referential and grammatical properties of pro. So-called ‘partial
null-subject languages’ have a pro with more restricted properties than full null-subject
languages. Pro is found in languages with or without rich verb agreement, and the
change from pro to obligatory subject does not necessarily coincide with the loss of
verb agreement. There is thus no direct formal correlation between pro and subject-verb
agreement; any apparent correlation just seems to reflect a pragmatically determined
statistical tendency. Many of the languages with obligatory subject (e.g. Scandinavian,
English, French) have developed from earlier stages with null subjects. This can be
described as a loss of pro in the history of those languages. This loss can in turn be
explained as caused by a lack of sufficient input data during acquisition; at a certain
stage the necessary cues for a phonologically empty item is insufficient, and pro is lost
from the language. This loss may be promoted, but nor directly caused by the
weakening of strong verb agreement. Such a scenario would also account for the
apparent unidirectionality of the loss of null subjects.
Workshop title
The Diachrony of Referential Null Arguments
Jan Terje FAARLUND j.t.faarlund@iln.uio.no