Null subjects: a reanalysis of the data

MELVYN DOUGLAS COLE

Abstract

In the face of problems with previous syntactic theories, this article1 estab-
lishes a new concept relating to the incidence of null thematic pronouns,
focusing on null thematic subjects. The data indicate that, in rich agreement
languages with null subjects, prima facie, recovery of such subjects is
achieved first by reference to discrete agreement and, if this fails, by refer-
ence to an antecedent in context. Subsequently, preferred interpretations
are resorted to and then overt pronouns. The argument is developed to
show that every language has its point of morphological maximality. This
is the maximum point up to which identifying subject verb agreement can
occur in a language and this level of verbal agreement must be present for
thematic subjects to be null. This point is scalar, being represented by
morphology for gender, person and number in Tarifit, for person and
number in Spanish, for person in Bengal and null morphology in Chinese.
A further necessary feature for thematic null subjects to occur is that an an-
tecedent in context completes their recovery. Whether this occurs or not is
put down to the contextual weakness and strength of languages. This theory
has the consequence that the licensing of thematic subjects is redundant and
that null expletive subjects need to be treated as a separate empty category.

1. Introduction

The incidence of covert pronouns has been one of the more notable areas
for generative grammar research over recent decades. The pre-eminent
early contribution, that of Rizzi (1986), saw covert pronouns as licensed
by a governing head and recovered by the features of that head (e¤ec-
tively AGRS in the case of null subjects). This approach faced problems
as Chinese and Japanese, inter alia, have null subjects without verbal
agreement for person and number. These initially appeared to be resolved

Linguistics 47–3 (2009), 559–587 0024–3949/09/0047–0559

DOI 10.1515/LING.2009.019 6 Walter de Gruyter
560 M. D. Cole

by C-T. J. Huang’s (1984) operator variable analysis, according to which

object and subject empty categories in those languages are variables
bound by a preceding overt or covert topic. However, Xu (1986) and Xu
and Langedoen (1985) observed that this analysis falls foul of the require-
ments of subjacency, the bijection principle and the strong crossover con-
dition in certain environments in Chinese2. Also, Y. Huang (2000) points
out that the main idea upon which it is based, namely that null objects of
complement clauses in languages lacking verb object agreement cannot
have a matrix clause subject as an antecedent, is not always the case.
C-T. J. Huang (1989) also produced his generalized control rule, which
required pro/PRO to be controlled in its control domain if it has one.
The control domain is closely associated with the idea of an accessible
SUBJECT and means that, in Chinese, pro/PRO must be identified by a
nominal in a higher domain. Y. Huang (2000) observes that the rule does
not work universally in Chinese, citing, inter alia, the following example:
(1) Xiaohong de meimei shuo Ø xihuan tan gangpin.
Xiaohong GEN younger-sister say like play piano
‘Xiaohong1 ’s younger sister2 says that (I/you/he/she1/2/3 /we/they)
like(s) to play the piano.’
Finally, Chinese has an as yet unexplained expletive null subject, as in
Example (2):3
(2) Haoxiang ta mei jin guo cheng.
Seems he not go-to PAST town
‘It seems that he did not go to town.’
In the face of this problem, Jaeggli and Safir (1989) argued that null sub-
jects are permitted in morphologically uniform languages, namely those
with either only derived or only underived forms in their verb paradigms
(like Chinese). This was found to be unsatisfactory in the face of evidence
that, inter alia, morphologically uniform Norwegian, Swedish and Dan-
ish lack null subjects.
Speas (1994) proposed that the expression or otherwise of null subjects
is determined by whether the j features in I O have some specification. If
they lack such specification, they must be given value through the spec/
head relationship. Languages with poor agreement do not allow null
subjects, since null subjects do not provide value to such agreement. In
languages lacking subject verb agreement (like Chinese), null subjects
may occur because there is no agreement to give value to. Speas accounts
for the lack of null subjects in Swedish by observing that, while it has no
verb subject agreement, it does possess some adjectival agreement. How-
ever, the logical connection between adjectival agreement and the expres-
 Null subjects 561

sion or otherwise of subject or object pronouns is unclear. Furthermore,

as Neeleman and Szendrõi (2007) observe, Afrikaans lacks agreement
altogether and also null subjects, while Speas herself states that Papia-
mentu, Duka and Guaymı́, which prima facie have no subject verb agree-
ment and no null subjects, require further research before the theory can
be properly substantiated in relation to them. To these one can add Song-
hay, as shown by Kameyama (1985), and Fon and Vata, as reported by
Law (1993), which also lack subject verb agreement and null subjects.
Tomioka (2003) proposes that null subjects occur in languages that
allow (robust) bare NP arguments. In his view, languages can delete NPs
providing this does not strand determiners. However, Neeleman and
Szendrõi (2007) rightly question why it should be only the stranding of
determiners by NP deletion that blocks null subjects, and why such null
subjects should not also be blocked by the fact that NP deletion would
also strand functional heads like sentence function particles wa, ga and o
in Japanese. Also, by the same logic, why should not NP deletion and by
extension null subjects also be wrongly ruled out by the stranding of the
classifiers with which the count nouns in Chinese are obligatorily merged.
Facing these di‰culties, Neeleman and Szendrõi (2007), not wishing to
ignore the language internal evidence that agreement must play a part in
the incidence of null subjects, take the view that languages fall into two
categories. These are those where agreement basically determines whether
null subjects occur and radical pro drop languages, where the incidence
of null pronouns is orthogonal to agreement. Basically Neeleman and
Szendrõi propose that radical pro drop can occur in a language where
pronouns are marked agglutinatively for case or some other morphologi-
cal element. This proposal is shown to produce correct solutions in 20
languages, but it faces problems.
Firstly, it is not clear to what extent quantitative considerations are
involved in whether or not a language is a rampant pro drop one. If, as
may be assumed, they are involved, the absence of verb subject agreement
in non-rampant pro drop Italian leaves no justification for the fact that,
in the following example in that language, the null object can be referen-
tial as well as generic, depending on the context.4
(3) L’atteggiamento di Giolitti in quell’ occasione lascio Ø
the attitude of Giolitti on that occasion left
daverro perplessi.
really perplexed
‘The attitude of Giolitti on that occasion left Ø really perplexed.’
Next, Finnish has agglutinative case endings on pronouns and lacks so-
called radical pro drop, thus plainly running counter to the theory of
562 M. D. Cole

Neeleman and Szendrõi. Lao is also a counterexample. Enfield (2007)

lists its pronouns as follows:5
1st person 2nd person 3rd person
Singular Bare kuu3 mùng2 man2
Familiar haw2 too3 laaw2
Polite khòòj5 caw4 phen1
Formal khaa5-phacaw4 thaan1 thaan1
Plural Bare phuak4-kuu3 suu3 khaw3, man2
Familiar haw2
Polite cu-haw 2 (inc) cu-caw4 khacaw4, phen1
cu-khòòj (exc) phuak4-caw4
I am informed by Enfield (personal communication) that the two ele-
ments phuak and cu (see above) that precede some singular pronouns to
make plurals are independent words meaning group although cu has
undergone slight phonological modification (loss of a final glottal stop).
Even if one sees the element cu as a separate morpheme in an overall pro-
noun, say cu-haw2 or cu-caw4, rather than a separate word, it does not
mark plural throughout all persons. So Lao pronouns are not generally
agglutinatively marked for plural. Neither are they marked at all for
case. However, despite the lack of agglutinative marking on Lao pro-
nouns, they can generally remain unexpressed in any position, so the
language is radical pro drop and consequently a counterexample to
Neeleman and Szendrõi’s theory.
Aiton, a Tai language spoken in Assam, allows subject and object
pronouns to be dropped without agreement6 and appears to be a radical
pro drop language in Neeleman and Szendrõi’s terms. Its pronouns are as
follows:
1st sing 2nd sing 3rd sing 1st plural 2nd plural 3rd plural
kau2 ma 2
m man2 hau2 suu1 khau1
Since Aiton’s pronouns are not marked for case and are not agglutina-
tively marked for plural, it is another counterexample to Neeleman and
Szendrõi’s proposal. Vietnamese also does not appear to conform to
Neeleman and Szendrõi’s ideas either. Cooke (1968) lists its pronouns as
follows:
mày/mâ`y/ bay mı̀nh nó tôi ho tó
ta tao toa moa ng§ ˙ ´ ƒ̀i chúng

He observes that there is no marking for case. Plural is frequently not

overtly expressed, but where it is, there are various ways of doing so.
With some pronouns, it can be done by preposing chúng or càc, meaning
 Null subjects 563

group. Thompson (1965) refers to chúng as a restrictive complement in

phrases with pronouns as head. It can also appear independently as a
third person plural pronoun. Some pronouns such as minh and ta can be
either singular or plural. The only specifically plural pronoun other than
chúng, namely ho, has no formal relationship with any singular form.
Again, there does˙ not seem to be morphological marking for case or any
other characteristic that justifies the presence of radical pro drop in the
sense of Neeleman and Szendrõi.
Finally, this review turns to Holmberg (2005), who addresses some dif-
ficulties caused to the syntactic theory on null pronouns by the fact that,
under the version of minimalism outlined in Chomsky (2001), the F fea-
tures in I are uninterpretable and enter the derivation unspecified. This
means that an unspecified pronoun cannot be specified by these features.
Using evidence from Finnish, Holmberg rejects the view of Manzini and
Roussou (1999), Alexiadou and Anagnostopoulou (1998) and Manzini
and Savoia (2002) that verb subject agreement acts as a pronoun in what
have traditionally been viewed as null subject constructions. He concludes
on the basis of Finnish that covert subject pronouns appear in Spec IP
and that narrow syntax is oblivious to whether they are expressed. This
conclusion seems not totally at odds with evidence in Cole (2000) that
syntax is not the sole determinant of the incidence of null subjects. First,
Example (4) in Spanish, where the verb tenı́a is ambiguous between 1st
and 3rd person singular, is satisfactory even without an overt subject
pronoun in the 2nd sentence, because the null subject is recovered by ref-
erence to Juan, its antecedent in the initial sentence:

(4) Juan llegaba. Ø Tenı́a las llaves.

Juan arrive-1/3S-IMP have-1/3S-IMP the keys
‘Juan was arriving. He had the keys.’

This recovery of null subject pronouns in Spanish by reference to an ante-

cedent in context is what Nakamura (1987) and Yan Huang (2000) re-
spectively observe to occur in Japanese and Chinese, which lack person
and number agreement on the verb.
Further evidence that syntax is not the sole factor involved in null pro-
nominal subjects comes from the observation of Samek-Lodovici (1996)
that null thematic subject pronouns are only possible in Italian with a
topic antecedent and thus that a null subject in the second sentence of
Example (5) is unacceptable because it lacks such a topic antecedent.

(5) Ogni mattine, la mostra è visitata da Gianni.

Every morning, the exhibition is visited by Gianni.
564 M. D. Cole

Più tarde lui/egli/*Ø visita la università.

More late he visit-3S.PRES the university
‘Every morning, the exhibition is visited by Gianni. Later, he visits
the university.’

The idea that null subjects occur in individual circumstances in languages

is further developed in this article. Indeed, here, a system will be outlined
of the recovery of thematic null subjects by reference to contextual ante-
cedents, supported by morphology in certain languages.
Since previous syntactic theories are inadequate, this article re-
examines the incidence of thematic null subjects on the basis of new data
from a variety of languages. Section 2 outlines the strands of the problem
and an initial approach to investigating it. It examines the incidence of
overt and covert pronominal subjects in languages where null subjects
occur widely, including those with significant verb subject agreement and
those completely lacking such agreement (other than for honorifics). It
then illustrates the absence of thematic null subjects in languages with no
agreement and in certain languages with rich agreement. The first conclu-
sion is that thematic null subjects do not occur in any language regardless
of circumstances. There is a step-by-step process in the recovery of the-
matic null subjects in languages with rich agreement that proceeds first
by reference to discrete morphology, then if the morphology is not dis-
crete, by reference to an available antecedent in context and, thirdly, to
recovery by virtue of a preferred interpretation. Finally, if none of these
methods adequately recovers thematic null subjects, an overt pronoun
must be resorted to. Section 3 examines the general principles that any
new approach to thematic null subjects must embody and shows that
any language has a point of morphological maximality up to which
agreement recovers null thematic subject pronouns. The degree of mor-
phological maximality is scalar, varying from Chinese, where it is null,
to Tarifit, where it is for person, number and gender. In Section 4, this
concept is related to the previously established procedure for the recovery
of thematic null subjects to show that, while their recovery by agreement
up to the point of morphological maximality is necessary, it is ultimately
recovery by reference to an antecedent in context that determines whether
they occur. Section 5 concludes that a significant di¤erence between lan-
guages with thematic null subjects and languages lacking them is that
the former are contextually stronger than the latter. Section 6 addresses
some consequences of this theory, including the facts that the licensing
of thematic null subjects is redundant and that expletive null sub-
jects need to be dealt with as a separate issue. Section 7 concludes. The
article does not address null thematic pronouns in other than subject
 Null subjects 565

position, or expletive null subjects, which are regarded as a separate area

of research.

2. Basic problem and overall approach and language survey

2.1. Basic problem

The following four axes in relation to thematic null subjects require cor-
relation:
(a) Italian and Spanish have thematic null subjects and rich identify-
ing morphology;
(b) Swedish lacks thematic null subjects and identifying morphology;
(c) Japanese has thematic null subjects, but no identifying morphol-
ogy;
(d) Icelandic lacks thematic null subjects, but has rich verb morphol-
ogy.
The argument will set out from the position, observed by Gilligan (1987),
that thematic null subjects are the norm in most languages. A good
approach to determining why they occur accordingly seems to be to ob-
serve the conditions under which overt pronouns are necessary in so-
called null subject languages and to compare this with reasons why they
are necessary in non-null subject languages.

2.2. Pragmatic use of overt pronouns in so-called null subject languages

Overt subject pronouns occur crosslinguistically for the purpose of focus

in languages where null subjects occur. Example (6) in Turkish and Ex-
ample (7) in Japanese illustrate.7
(6) Ben Cuma günü Istanbul-a git-ti-m
I Friday day Istanbul-DAT go-PAST-1S
‘I went to Istanbul on Friday.’
(7) Kare-wa dokusho-ga sukida.
he-TOP reading-NOM like-PRES
‘He likes reading.’
These examples only incorporate overt pronouns ben and kare for the
purpose of focus and would be quite adequate otherwise with covert pro-
nouns.
A further general use of overt pronouns in languages in which null sub-
jects occur is for change of topic. The following examples illustrate:
566 M. D. Cole

Japanese:
(8) John-wa mat-tei-ta. Mary-ga ie-ni
John-TOP wait-PROG-PAST Mary NOM house-LOC
tsui-ta. Kare-ga doa-o ake-ta.
arrive-PAST he-NOM door-ACC open-PAST
‘John was waiting. Mary arrived at the house. He opened the door.’
(9) John-wa mat-tei-ta. Mary-ga ie-ni
John-TOP wait-PROG-PAST. Mary-NOM house-LOC
tsui-ta. Ø doa-o ake-ta.
arrive-PAST door-ACC open-PAST
‘John was waiting. Mary arrived at the house. She opened the
door.’
Spanish:
(10) Juan esperaba. Juanita llegó a casa. El
Juan wait-3S.IMP Juanita arrive-3S.PAST to home. he
abrió la puerta.
open-3S.PAST the door
‘John was waiting. Juanita arrived home. He opened the door.’
(11) Juan esperaba. Juanita llegó a casa.
Juan wait-3S.IMP Juanita arrive-3S.PAST to home.
Ø Abrió la puerta.
(she) opened the door
Examples (9) and (11) are both satisfactory. In the first, the null subject is
recovered by reference to previous context in the form of Mary and, in
the second, it is recovered by reference to verb agreement as third person
singular. Substitution of kare and él respectively for the null subject in
otherwise identical Examples (8) and (10) provides a change of topic
from the one context would have implied had there been a null subject
as in Examples (9) and (11).
However, while focus and change of topic are important purposes for
using overt pronouns in languages where null pronouns occur widely,
such use of overt pronouns is only for purely pragmatic purposes. In
fact, overt thematic subject pronouns must occur in certain circumstances
in many so-called null subject languages, an issue which will form the
basis for further discussion.

2.3. Obligatory incidence of overt thematic subjects in null subject

languages
Before proceeding to the main discussion, a number of examples repre-
senting axes (A) to (D) set out in Section 2.1 will be analyzed in order
 Null subjects 567

to illustrate some crosslinguistic patterns of the required use or otherwise

of overt subjects. Languages under axis (A) will be discussed at greater
length than the other types so as to establish a crosslinguistic generaliza-
tion that will be an essential factor in subsequent discussion.

2.3.1. Languages with null thematic subjects and rich agreement. Swa-
hili has null thematic subjects and discrete subject agreement on all verbs,
leaving no reason for overt subject pronouns to be required in this lan-
guage. Example (12) illustrates.8

(12) Ø A-li-m-busu Halima.

3S.SUBJ-PAST-3S.OBJ-kiss Halima
‘He kissed Halima.’
Spanish presents a less simple picture, as the following examples show:

(13) Ø Llegué a casa.

Arrive-1S.PAST to home
‘I arrived home.’
(14) Juan y yo llegábamos a casa. *Ø/El
John and I arrive-1PL.IMP to home. ?/he
tenı́a las llaves.
have-1/3S.IMP the keys.
‘John and I were arriving home. I/he had the keys.’
(15) Juan llegaba a casa. Ø Tenı́a las
John arrive-3S.IMP to home. (he) have-1/3S.IMP the
llaves.
keys.
‘John was arriving home. He had the keys.’

A large majority of its verb forms have unique subject verb agreement,
but the 1st and 3rd persons singular of the imperfect indicative tense
among others are syncretic. In Example (13), the null subject is recovered
by unique 1st person singular agreement. In Example (14), a null subject
is not acceptable since tenı́a is ambiguous between 1st and 3rd person sin-
gular, so an overt pronoun (El ) is needed. Example (15) is, however, ac-
ceptable, even though tenı́a is again ambiguous, because the subject of
tenı́a is taken to be Juan, the subject of the verb in the 1st sentence in
that example. Thus the null thematic pronoun is recovered by reference
to an antecedent in context. This is impossible in Example (14) because
Juan y yo, the subject of llegábamos in the initial sentence, being 1st per-
son plural, is not an antecedent from which the identity of the subject of
the subsequent tenı́a can be established. European Portuguese, with a
568 M. D. Cole

similar pattern of syncretic forms to Spanish, exhibits a similar pattern of

the incidence of overt and null thematic subjects.
Serbian has syncretic forms in the 2nd and 3rd person singular of the
imperfect and aorist tenses. The following examples in the imperfect illus-
trate the position:9
(16) Ø beste u prirodi.
be-2PL-IMP in country.
‘You (plural) were in the country.’
(17) Ti I Marko beste u prirodi. *Ø/On
You and Marko be-2PL-IMP in country. ?/he
uživaše.
enjoy-2/3S.IMP
‘You and Marko were in the country. He was enjoying himself.’
(18) Marko beše u prirodi. Ø uživaše.
Marko be-2/3S-IMP in country. enjoy-2/3S.IMP
‘Marko was in the country. He was enjoying himself.’
Example (16) is satisfactory with the null subject recovered by unique
agreement. However, Example (17) is unacceptable with a null subject be-
cause uživaše does not distinguish between 2nd and 3rd person singular,
so an overt pronoun (on) has to be inserted. Example (18) is satisfactory
without an overt pronoun, even though uživaše is not di¤erentiated for
person, because the null subject is recovered by reference to an antecedent
in context, namely Marko, the subject of the verb in the first sentence in
the example. This is impossible in Example (17), because ti i Marko, the
2nd person plural subject of bevte, gives no indication whether a null sub-
ject for uživaše in the subsequent sentence is 2nd or 3rd person. Macedo-
nian and Bulgarian also have syncretic forms in the 2nd and 3rd person
singular of the aorist and imperfect tenses and show a similar incidence
pattern for overt and null thematic subjects.
In Amharic, the simple imperfect tense is frequently prefixed by a com-
plementizer like be- ¼ if, so that the basic form ttedärs (you [masc]/ she
come[s]) becomes bettedärs ¼ (if you [masc] /she come[s]). Any overt
pronoun precedes such a complex form. Object pronominals may occur
as su‰xes or infixes and may change according to the preceding vowel
or consonant of the verb to which they are infixed or su‰xed. Examples
showing situations where overt subject pronouns must occur follow.10

(19) Antä-nna Hanna eddeläññ-očč n-aččehu. Ø Bäsä?at-u

You-and Anne fortunate-PL be-2PL on-hour-DEF
be-ttedärs-u, Ø
if-2PL-arrive.IMP-2PL
 Null subjects 569

t-agäñ-u-t-all-aččehu.
2PL.SUB-find-PL-3MS.OB-MVM-2PL.SUB
‘You and Anne are fortunate. If you arrive on time, you will catch
him.’
(20) Antä-nna Hanna eddeläññ-očč n-aččehu. *Ø/erswa
you-and Anne fortunate-PL be-2PL. she
bäsä?at-u be-ttedärs, Ø
on-hour-DEF if-arrive-2M/3F.IMP
te-ššälläm-all-aččehu.
2PL.SUB-win-MVM-2PL.SUB
‘You and Anne are fortunate. If she arrives on time, you (pl) will
win.’
(21) Hanna eddeläñña n-äčč. Ø bäsä?at-u
Anne fortunate-F be-3F. (she) on-hour-DEF
be-ttedärs, Ø sera e-sät’-at-allä-hu.
if-arrive.2M/3F.IMP, job 1S-give-her-MVM-1S
‘Anne is fortunate. If she arrives on time, I shall give her the job.’

The null subject of the main clause verb in the 2nd sentence of each of
Examples (19)–(21) and the null subject of bettedärsu in Example (19)
are all recovered by unique subject verb agreement. However, bettedärs,
the verb in the subordinate clause of the 2nd sentence of Examples (20) to
(21) is ambiguous between 2nd person masculine singular and 3rd person
feminine singular. Example (20) is unacceptable with a null subject for
ambiguous bettedärs because the 2nd person plural Antä-nna Hanna in
the initial sentence is not an antecedent capable of identifying that sub-
ject, so an overt subject (erswa) is necessary. Example (21) is, however,
acceptable with a covert subject for bettedärs, because it is recovered in
the absence of unique subject verb agreement by reference to Hanna, the
antecedent in the previous sentence in the example. A similar pattern is
available in Arabic where the ambiguity is between the 3rd person femi-
nine singular and 2nd person masculine singular of the present. Thus, the
languages so far considered show that, first of all, unique subject verb
agreement is relied upon for the recovery of null thematic subjects. Then,
in the absence of such unique agreement, they are recovered by reference
to an antecedent in context. Finally, if neither unique agreement nor an
acceptable antecedent is available, overt pronouns are resorted to. The
recovery of null subjects by reference to an antecedent in context in the
presence of syncretic verb agreement in rich agreement languages has
also been observed to occur in Estonian, Turkish, Hindi/Urdu, Bengali,
Imbabura Quechua and Catalan.11 Italian provides a slightly more com-
plicated picture. It has syncretic forms in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person
570 M. D. Cole

singular of the present subjunctive, and in the 1st and 2nd person singular
of the imperfect subjunctive. Let us observe some examples:12

(22) Pavarotti1 dice che mangia gli spaghetti.

Pavarotti1 say-3S.PRES that eat-3S.PRES the spaghetti
‘Pavarotti says that he eats spaghetti.’
(23) Maria ed io1 siamo amici. Bisogna
Maria and I be-1PL.PRES friends. be-necessary.3S.PRES
che Ø1 sappia la verità
that (I) know1/2/3S.PRES.SUBJ the truth
‘Maria and I are friends. It is necessary that I know the truth.’
(24) *Maria1 ed io siamo amici. Bisogna che Ø1 sappia la verità.
(25) Maria1 ed io siamo amici. Bisogna che lei1
‘Maria and I are friends. It is necessary that she
sappia la verità.
know the truth.’
(26) Maria è un amica. Bisogna che
Maria be-3S.PRES a friend. Be-necessary-3S.PRES that
Ø Sappia la verità.
(she) know-1/2/3S.PRES.SUBJ the truth.
‘Maria is a friend. It is necessary that she know the truth.’

In Italian, a thematic null subject is, prima facie, recoverable when it is

the subject of a verb with unique subject agreement like mangia in Exam-
ple (22). In Example (23), present subjunctive sappia is ambiguous be-
tween 1st, 2nd and 3rd person singular and there is no antecedent in con-
text by reference to which its subject can be recovered since the subject of
the initial sentence is 3rd person plural. The example is acceptable, how-
ever, without an overt pronoun, but only with a preferred 1st person in-
terpretation.13 For a 3rd person interpretation to work, it is necessary to
insert an overt 3rd person pronoun as in Example (25). Example (26) is
acceptable without an overt pronoun but with a 3rd person singular inter-
pretation of the null subject because this is recovered by reference to
Maria, its antecedent in the 1st sentence in that example. A pattern of
preferred interpretation is also possible with syncretic forms in the first
and second person of the imperfect subjunctive. Consequently, one can
see that, in Italian, null thematic subjects may be recovered by reference
to unique agreement and, in its absence, by reference to a suitable ante-
cedent in context. In the absence of both, it may have a preferred inter-
pretation. If the preferred interpretation is not the one required, an overt
pronoun must be used. This mirrors the position in all other languages
examined, except that, in Italian, preferred interpretations come into
 Null subjects 571

play after context has failed to di¤erentiate the subject of syncretic verb
forms and before resort is finally had to overt pronouns.

2.3.2. Languages with no agreement and null thematic subjects. Lan-

guages like Chinese, Japanese and Korean have null subjects and no sub-
ject verb agreement (other than for honorifics in the case of Japanese and
Korean). Overt pronouns occur in subject position in these languages for
the same two pragmatic reasons of focus and change of topic as in null
subject languages with rich agreement morphology. The languages also
obligatorily use overt subject pronouns in other situations parallel to
those for which they are used in rich agreement languages like Spanish
and Serbian, as the following Chinese examples show:14
(27) Zhang he ta de fu mu canguan le bowugan.
Zhang and he of parents visit PAST museum.
Ran hou Ø qu le juyian.
after that go PAST theater.
‘Zhang and his parents visited the museum. Then they went to the
theater.’
(28) Zhang he ta de fu mu canguan le bowugan
Zhang and he of parents visit PAST museum.
Ran hou ta qu le juyian.
after that he go PAST theatre.
‘Zhang and his parents visited the museum. Then he went to the
theatre.’
In Example (27), the null subject in the 2nd sentence is recovered by ref-
erence to the 3rd person plural antecedent Zhang he ta de fu mu in the 1st
sentence. In Example (28), the same antecedent gives no clue as to the
identity of a 3rd person singular feminine subject in the second sentence,
so overt pronoun ta has to be inserted. Examples are also available to
demonstrate a similar situation in Japanese and Korean.
So, in these languages that lack subject verb agreement (other than for
honorifics), covert pronouns are permitted where they are recovered by
reference to available antecedents, but otherwise overt pronouns are re-
sorted to. Thus, null subjects occur in parallel circumstances to those
in which they occur in languages with rich agreement, like Spanish and
Serbian, insofar as, here, as there, if agreement does not properly recover
them (which, here, being absent, it cannot do), an antecedent in discourse
may be resorted to in order to do so.
572 M. D. Cole

2.3. Languages that lack null subjects

The situation in so-called non-null subject languages will now be exam-

ined, drawing parallels and contrasts with that in so-called null subject
languages.
Norwegian and Swedish have no person/number verbal morphology,
but, unlike Korean, lack null subjects. The following Swedish example
illustrates the position.15
(29) Mannen kom hem. Först öppnade *Ø/han
the man come-PAST home. first open-PAST. he
dörren, sedan . . .
the door then . . .
‘The man came home. First he opened the door, then . . .’
Here, the null thematic subject in the 2nd sentence has an antecedent in
context which might recover it in the form of the subject of the preceding
sentence, mannen, but the example is still unacceptable without the inser-
tion of overt pronoun han.
Evidence that even rich agreement does not guarantee null thematic
subjects further complicates the picture. The following example in Ice-
landic illustrates.16
(30) Þér komi¶ alltaf of seint. Viti¶
ér/*Ø
you come-2S.PRES always too late. know-2S.PRES you
ekki hvenœr vi¶ byrjum a¶ vinna hérna.
not when we come-1PL.PRES to work here?
‘You are always late. Don’t you know when we come to work
here?’
Example (30) is unacceptable with a covert subject in its second sentence,
even though this has an antecedent in the preceding sentence and the
verb of which it is subject, namely viti¶, has unique subject agreement.
Accordingly, insertion of the overt thematic pronoun bér is necessary for
acceptability. Thus, thematic null subjects are not possible in this lan-
guage, although, in various circumstances, the means to recover them ap-
pear prima facie to exist. In fact, it is remarkable that Icelandic, with
nearly totally discrete verbal morphology, which might have recovered
thematic null subjects on a wide scale, lacks them completely. Sigur¶sson
(1993) explains this by pointing out that Icelandic lost thematic null sub-
jects at a certain stage in its history without concomitant loss of agree-
ment and concludes that such agreement was never anaphoric in this
language and that the ability of antecedents in context to identify null
thematic subjects has been lost.
 Null subjects 573

Thus, there is prima facie a disparate mixture of circumstances to cate-

gorize. In Swahili Example (12), Spanish Example (13), Serbian Example
(16), Amharic Example (19), and Italian Example (22), thematic null sub-
jects occur with unique verb forms. In Icelandic Example (30), such a
thematic null subject cannot occur even with rich agreement. In Spanish
Example (15), Italian Example (26), Serbian Example (18), Amharic Ex-
ample (21), and Chinese Example (27), a null subject occurs with a syn-
cretic verb form but is recovered by reference to an antecedent in previous
context. While Swahili does not require context to identify null thematic
subjects since all verbal a‰xes are unique, Chinese still has such null sub-
jects without any person or number morphology to identify them. Also,
while Example (27) shows that Chinese has null subjects recovered by
reference to an antecedent in context, Example (29) shows that Swedish,
also with no verbal agreement, does not.

3. Morphological maximality and determination of the occurrence of null

subjects from context

3.1. Recovery by agreement or from context or both

While hitherto agreement has generally been seen as the driving force be-
hind null subjects, it is clearly not so in languages where it is absent in
any relevant form. Accordingly, what is required is a concept that allows
null subjects to occur in Japanese for precisely the same reasons as in
Bengali, Spanish or Swahili and also encompasses the fact that thematic
null subjects occur in agreement rich Spanish, but not in agreement rich
Icelandic. While a purely agreement-based approach is clearly not satis-
factory, there is clear evidence that an approach based entirely on contex-
tual identification is also unsatisfactory, including Examples (31)–(35)
from split ergative Pashto.17

(31) Ø Mana xwr-em.

apple eat-1M.S.PRES
‘I eat the apple.’
(32) *Ze Ø xwr-em.
I (it) eat-1M.S.PRES
‘I eat it (e.g., the apple).’
(33) *Ø Mana we-xwar-a.
apple PFT-eat-3F.S
‘I ate the apple.’
574 M. D. Cole

(34) Ma Ø we-xwar-a.
I (it) PFT-eat-3F.S
‘I ate it (e.g., the apple).’

The verb in present tense Examples (31) and (32) agrees in person, num-
ber and gender with the subject and only null subjects (not null objects)
are possible. On the other hand, the agreement on the verb in past tense
Examples (33) and (34) is object related and only null objects (not null
subjects) are possible. This shows such a clear connection between the in-
cidence of null subjects and the presence of agreement that agreement
cannot be ruled out as an element in the determination of their incidence.
Further evidence that agreement is a factor in the incidence of null sub-
jects comes from Breton, Celtic languages generally, Standard Arabic
and Moroccan Lebanese and Beni Hassan Arabic, Älvdalsmålet and
Angami. Stump (1984) points out that, in Breton, thematic null subjects
occur only when verb subject agreement is present and do not occur
when it is absent. Furthermore Doron (1988) refers to a complementarity
between verbal agreement and overt subjects in Celtic languages gener-
ally. Kenstowicz (1989) provides similar evidence in Bani-Hassan Arabic,
showing that, in expressing the past, the perfect (þ tense þ person) form
can have a null subject, while the participial (þ tense
person) form can-
not. Aoun, Benmamoun and Sportiche (1994) point out that Standard
Arabic has both SV and VS orders in simple clauses, In SV order the
verb agrees with the subject for person, number and gender whilst in VS
order the verb agrees with the subject for person and gender but not for
number. On the other hand Moroccan and Lebanese Arabic have verb
subject agreement for person, number and gender for both orders. To
complement this, Benmamoun (2000) points out that in all these three
Arabic languages, null subjects can only occur where there is verb subject
agreement for number as well as for person and gender. Further evidence
comes from Älvdalsmålet, which Sigur¶sson (1993) reports as allowing
null subjects only in the 1st and 2nd person plural, the only places where
rich agreement occurs. Sigur¶sson points out that the first, second, and
third persons singular of the verb in this language are identical and that
the third person plural is most frequently the same as them. Finally, evi-
dence comes from Angami, where Giridhar (1980) points out that only
stative verbs expressing mental states, processes and attributes take sub-
ject agreement and only with such verbs do thematic null subjects occur.
The failure of either a totally agreement based or a totally context
based solution to work seems to reflect the division of languages made
by Tsao (1977), cited in C-T. J. Huang (1984), into sentence oriented
ones, like English, Spanish and Italian, and discourse oriented ones, like
 Null subjects 575

Chinese, Japanese and Korean. In fact, Li and Thompson (1976: 50)

earlier distinguished the following four possibilities:
Subject prominent English
Topic prominent Chinese
Subject and topic prominent Japanese
Neither subject nor topic prominent Tagalog
They saw discourse oriented languages as topic prominent, having topic
NP deletion and the syntactic content of empty categories determined
from outside the sentence. Rather than just categorizing languages as dis-
course or sentence oriented, it seems that, in order to achieve a unifying
theory, these kinds of di¤erences need to be seen as points on a spectrum
rather than oppositions. In fact, Li and Thomson’s view that Japanese is
both subject and topic prominent suggests some blurring of the dividing
line between [þdiscourse orientated/
sentence orientated] languages and
[þsentence/
discourse oriented] ones. This gives further credence to the
idea that what is needed is a bridging operation between languages like
Spanish and Italian, which are construed as being sentence orientated,
apparently requiring predominantly unique subject verb agreement to de-
termine whether thematic null subjects occur from within the sentence,
and Chinese, Korean and Japanese, each of which, to its own degree, is
discourse orientated and allows the content of empty categories to be
determined to a considerable degree from outside the sentence. Such a
bridging operation must involve a concept that incorporates both agree-
ment and context in a solution that can apply as well to rich agreement
Spanish as to context driven Chinese. This will be seen as a two part
problem. Initially, the agreement facet will be addressed, but this itself
will throw light on the context aspect, which will be subsequently dis-
cussed.

3.2. Situation in Bengali

A key to the involvement of subject verb agreement in the crosslinguistic

incidence of null thematic subjects seems to lie in Bengali, a null subject
language with subject verb agreement for person but not for number.18
However, it has personal pronouns, singular and plural, for all persons
and modes of address. Like other null subject languages, it uses such pro-
nouns for focus, as in the following example:19
(35) Ami bajare jacchi
‘I(focused) am going to-town.’
576 M. D. Cole

Overt pronouns are also used in Bengali for change of topic as Examples
(36) and (37) illustrate.

(36) Budhbar-e amra Calcutta-e gelum.

on-Wednesday we to-Calcutta go-1-PAST.
Brihoshpothibar-e Ø gari kinlum. Shonibar-e Ø bari
on-Thursday car buy-1PAST. on-Saturday home
firlum.
come-1PAST
‘On Wednesday we went to Calcutta. On Thursday we bought a
car. On Saturday we came home.’
(37) Budhbar-e amra Calcutta-e gelum.
on-Wednesday we to-Calcutta go-1PAST.
Brihoshpothibar-e Ø gari kinlum. Shonibar-e ami
on-Thursday car. buy-1PAST. on-Saturday I
bari firlum.
home come-1PAST
‘On Wednesday, we to Calcutta went. On Thursday, we bought a
car. On Saturday, I came home.’
In Example (36), amra, the 1st person plural subject of the 1st sentence is
an antecedent providing identification for the null subject of the 2nd and
3rd sentences in the example. In Example (37), to change the reference of
the subject of the 3rd sentence to 1st person singular, insertion of overt
subject pronoun ami is necessary. However, as in other null subject lan-
guages, such pragmatic use of overt pronouns gives no definition of the
incidence of thematic null subjects. Examples (38)–(40) provide a better
indication of this.

(38) Iqbal Calcutta-e budhbar-e gœlo.

Iqbal to-Calcutta on-Wednesday go-3PAST.
Brihoshpothibar-e Ø gari kinlo.
on-Thursday car buy-3PAST
‘Iqbal went to Calcutta on Wednesday. On Thursday he bought a
car.’
(39) Shonibar-e Iqbal Calcutta-e jabe. Ø gari
on-Saturday Iqbal to-Calcutta go-2/3FUT. car
kinbe Ø Restaurant-e jabe.
buy-2/3FUT. to-restaurant go-2/3FUT.
‘On Saturday, Iqbal will go to Calcutta. He will buy a car. He will
go to a restaurant.’
(40) Shonibar-e Iqbal Calcutta-e jabe. Ø Gari
on-Saturday Iqbal to-Calcutta go-2/3FUT. car
 Null subjects 577

kinbe. Tumi restaurant-e jabe.

buy-2/3FUT you-S to-restaurant go-2/3FUT
‘On Saturday, Iqbal will go to Calcutta. He will buy a car. You
will go to a restaurant.’
In Example (38), the person of the null subject is recovered by reference
to unique subject verb agreement, but recovery of number comes from the
antecedent in the form of Iqbal, the subject of the initial sentence. In Ex-
ample (39), the verbs kinbe in the 2nd sentence and jabe in the 3rd are
ambiguous between 2nd and 3rd person, but a null subject is still possible
because, with an intended 3rd person interpretation, it can be recovered
by reference to the antecedent, Iqbal, the 3rd person singular subject of
the 1st sentence in the example. In Example (40), an overt pronoun must
occur as the subject of the 3rd sentence if a second person interpretation
is intended, since the verb jabe is indistinct between 2nd and 3rd person
and does not give such an interpretation. So, in Bengali, where only
person is the norm for the morphological recovery of the subject, a null
subject may occur, just as in Serbian, Amharic, or Spanish, where it is
recovered by reference to that morphology and, in the absence of that,
by reference to a suitable antecedent in context. However, where it re-
mains unrecovered, an overt pronoun is required.

3.3. Morphological maximality, antecedents and null subjects

Thus, Bengali, with verbal morphology for person only, provides a bridge
between Chinese, where thematic null subjects are always recovered by
reference to the features of an antecedent and morphology plays no part,
and Italian, where they are morphologically recovered for person and
number. In fact, if we examine the morphological recovery of thematic
null subjects in all languages where they occur, it can be seen to form a
scale, at one extreme of which is Chinese, where recovery by reference to
verbal morphology is nil and the null subject is recovered by reference to
context alone. Then, in Bengali, a null subject is morphologically recov-
ered for person by verb subject agreement, except when such agreement
is syncretic, when such a subject may be recovered by reference to con-
text. Next come Spanish and Italian, where a null subject is recovered
for person and number by subject verb agreement, except when such
agreement is syncretic, when such a subject may be recovered by reference
to context. Finally, in Tarifit, the norm is for the null subject to be recov-
ered for person, number and gender by subject verb agreement, as in Ex-
ample (41).20
578 M. D. Cole

(41) Kurizzn1 y-nna qa Ø ur y-ssin

everyone1 3M.S-say that not 3M.S-know-PAST
ad y-ghinni.
to M.S-sing
‘Everyone1 said that he1 does not know how to sing.’

This appears to give a unified account for null subject languages, in so far
as we can see a scalar progression in the degree to which null thematic
subjects are recovered by reference to morphology. At one end of this
scale is Chinese, where context is all-prevailing in the recovery of null
thematic subjects and subject verb agreement, being absent, plays no
part, and at the other end is Tarifit, where, prima facie, recovery of such
null subjects relies on agreement for person, number and gender. How-
ever, is this the end of the scale, or should one not see the features of an-
tecedents in context themselves as broken down into further unspecified
factors X, Y, Z by reference to which null subjects can be recovered, just
as context:

(i) recovers number when a null subject is used with unique forms
in such a language as Bengali, which only has morphology for
person? or
(ii) recovers gender in such languages as Italian or Spanish which
only have morphology for person and number?

E¤ectively what one can say is that every language has its own morpho-
logical maximality in terms of subject agreement. A null thematic subject
can occur provided that, in the first instance, subject verb agreement is
unique up to the point of morphological maximality. In Chinese, the
point of morphological maximality is null. Nil morphological features
are required to satisfy this null morphological maximality and so a null
thematic subject may occur in the first place provided those features not
represented by morphological maximality are available by reference to an
antecedent in context. So, in Chinese, a null thematic subject may occur if
it is satisfactorily recovered by reference to an antecedent in context. In
Bengali, morphological maximality is represented by person, so a null
thematic subject may occur if unique agreement recovers person, pro-
vided that features not represented by morphological maximality are re-
covered by reference to an antecedent in context. In Spanish and Italian,
morphological maximality is represented by person and number. A null
thematic subject may occur in the first place if unique subject verb agree-
ment recovers its person and number, and features not represented by
morphological maximality are recoverable from an antecedent in context.
In Tarifit, morphological maximality is represented by person, number
 Null subjects 579

and gender, and any features beyond that are recovered by reference to
an antecedent in context.
In Arabic, morphological maximality is represented by person, number
and gender. This creates a slight problem since, in this language, gender is
only morphologically recovered in the second and third person singular
and plural. The concept therefore needs some modification to allow null
subjects to occur in the 1st person singular and plural without agreement
for that person being specified for gender. The only practical way to
achieve this without other undesirable results is to specify the e¤ective
facts. Morphological maximality must be across a whole language for
person and number, but can be across only certain persons in a language
for other features. Thus, in Arabic and other languages with similar verb
subject agreement characteristics, morphological maximality is for person
and number in the 1st person, but for person, number and gender in the
second and third persons.
Having dealt with this di‰culty, we can now say that a null thematic
subject may occur if unique verb subject agreement recovers features up
to the point of morphological maximality and all other features are recov-
erable by reference to an antecedent in context.

3.4. Recovery from context

In the previous section, a framework was established in which agreement

could be incorporated into an overall definition of the incidence of null
subjects even in a language like Chinese, which lacks agreement morphol-
ogy. Incidental to this, it was established that context always plays some
part in the recovery of null subjects. Let us now pinpoint exactly what
part that is.
So far we have said that
(A) in an example like the following in Spanish with syncretic
agreement:
Juan llegaba a casa. Ø
John arrive-1/3S.IMPERF to home. (he)
Tenı́a las llaves
have-1/3S.IMPERF the keys
‘John was arriving home. He had the keys.’
null subjects are recovered by reference to an antecedent in context;
(B) in Chinese, null subjects are totally identified by reference to ante-
cedents in context; and
580 M. D. Cole

(C) in Bengali, Spanish and Tarifit, where there is unique verbal

agreement, context recovers all features of thematic null subjects
beyond the point of morphological maximality

While it is plain in all these circumstances that context is a determinant of

the incidence of thematic null subjects, what is needed is a single state-
ment of its contribution in this respect that will cover all its occurrences
in all languages. It is clear that full recovery of thematic null subjects
from context is needed in Chinese, and it appears necessary in the circum-
stances of A above, where agreement does not recover the null thematic
subject up to the point of morphological maximality. It seems self-evident
that it fully recovers them in the circumstances of C above too, but can
we say that it is a requirement or is it just the case that contextual recov-
ery is only necessary beyond the point of morphological maximality? The
following Spanish example gives the answer:

(42) *[Juan y Juanita]1 llegaron a casa. Ø1

Juan and Juanita arrived to house.
Abrió la puerta.
open-3S.PAST the door
‘Juan and Juanita arrived home. (He/she) opened the door.’

Assuming no deictic context, this is unacceptable because the null subject

in the 2nd sentence is recovered as 3rd singular by verb subject agree-
ment, but is co-indexed with a 3rd person plural antecedent. If contextual
recovery were merely required beyond the point of morphological maxi-
mality, then such co-indexation would be acceptable. This is because the
failure of the singular agreement feature to accord with the plural ante-
cedent would be of no consequence because number is a feature within
morphological maximality and thus would not need to be contextually re-
covered. To ensure that contextual recovery does not contradict morpho-
logical recovery, we must say that, for there to be a 3rd person singular
null subject, it must be fully contextually recovered. Thus, as well as be-
ing recovered up to morphological maximality (with a tolerance for
syncretisms) by agreement, a null thematic subject must be fully recov-
ered by reference to an antecedent in context. A formulation of this
approach follows:

A null thematic subject may occur when it is both

(a) recovered by reference to an antecedent in context; and
(b) recovered by agreement up to the point of morphological unifor-
mity (with a tolerance for sycretisms)
 Null subjects 581

4. An essential di¤erence between null subject and non-null subject

languages

A clear di¤erence is now apparent between languages where thematic null

subjects occur and those where they do not. In languages where thematic
null subjects occur:
(i) they are recovered up to the point of morphological maximality
or as far as possible towards it, given syncretisms, by subject
verb agreement.
(ii) recovery as at (i) is supplemented by reference to an antecedent in
context.
(iii) where a combination of (i) and (ii) fails to recover a thematic null
subject, it may have a preferred interpretation (as in Italian).
(iv) where neither (i) and (ii) nor (iii) provide an identity for a the-
matic null subject, an overt pronoun must be substituted.
In prototypically non-null subject languages like Swedish with no verb
agreement:
(i) recovery by subject verb agreement is up to the point of morpho-
logical maximality which is nil, as in Chinese, and this is not sup-
plemented by reference to an antecedent in context; so
(ii) overt pronouns must be used.
There is an essential di¤erence between the two patterns. In languages
where null thematic subjects occur, such as Spanish, Italian, Bengali and
Chinese, their recovery by subject verb agreement up to the point of mor-
phological maximality, (or as far as possible towards it, given sycretisms)
can be supplemented by recovery by reference to an antecedent in context
before overt pronouns are resorted to. However, in prototypical non-null
subject Norwegian and Swedish, agreement can recover a null subject up
to the point of morphological maximality, which is null. However, such a
subject is not recovered by reference to an antecedent in context, so resort
is had immediately to overt pronouns, which must always be used.
The most telling picture is given by comparing how this scheme of
things works in Chinese and Swedish. In both, recovery by agreement,
(which is lacking) is up to morphological maximality, which is null.
In Chinese, a null thematic subject is recovered by reference to an ante-
cedent in context, but overt pronouns are immediately resorted to in
Swedish.
One could conclude on this basis that languages in which null thematic
subjects may occur have a certain contextual strength and that those
where they do not occur have a certain contextual weakness. Whether a
582 M. D. Cole

language is contextually weak or strong might then be construed as re-

flected by whether a thematic null subject can be recovered by reference
to an antecedent in context. This approach then lends itself to the solu-
tion of another problem. The reason why null subjects are possible in
Spanish but not in Icelandic, both of which have rich subject verb agree-
ment, could be put down to the fact that, in the former, they can be re-
covered by reference to an antecedent in context, whereas, in the latter,
this is not the case. Supporting evidence for this conclusion comes from
the fact that, in Icelandic, as already pointed out, Sigur¶sson (1993) con-
cludes that thematic null subjects were lost without any appreciable loss
in agreement morphology and that, in Old Icelandic, thematic null sub-
jects were recovered by reference to free co-indexing with elements in con-
text. This situation could be interpreted in terms of Icelandic changing
from being a contextually strong to a contextually weak language as it
lost thematic null subjects. Similarly, French and English, languages that
lack thematic null subjects even with the limited verb forms with identify-
ing morphology, could be construed as being contextually weak.
In Pashto, looking back to Examples (31) to (34), null subjects can oc-
cur in intransitive past tense sentences and generally in the present tense,
where there is verb subject agreement for gender, person and number but
not in transitive sentences in the past where there is no such subject verb
agreement. This language can be construed as contextually strong since
null thematic subjects do occur in it. The di¤erence in the incidence of
null subjects between its tenses can be related to the fact that morpholog-
ical maximality for subject agreement is for gender, person and number,
so that thematic null subjects can occur where they are recovered by this
level of subject verb agreement, namely in intransitive past tense sen-
tences and generally in the present tense. On the other hand, they cannot
be so recovered in transitive sentences in the past tense, where this level of
subject verb agreement is absent, since the agreement there is object
related. This illustrates how the concept developed in this article operates
in a partial null subject language where the presence or absence of null
thematic pronouns varies with the presence or absence of subject verb
agreement.21

5. Consequences of the above theory

The first condition for a null thematic subject to occur is for it to be re-
covered by reference to an antecedent in context in a contextually strong
language. If this does not occur, then an overt pronoun is required. From
this we may conclude that the syntactic licensing of thematic null sub-
 Null subjects 583

jects is completely redundant. There are in fact already good argu-

ments against there being a licensing requirement for null subjects. First
there is no reason why a purely phonological opposition (pronounced/
unpronounced) should be the subject of syntactic licensing. This objection
to the syntactic licensing of null subjects is in fact highlighted by Speas
(1994) who points out in relation to head licensing that the licensing con-
dition necessitates that the grammar allow some heads to be designated as
licensors of a category with particular phonological properties (namely
the property of being unpronounced). There are no designations equiva-
lent to head licensing in other components of syntax involving other pho-
nological properties. Furthermore, syntactic licensing would necessitate
that a particular lexical entry, a null thematic subject, is subject to a spe-
cial syntactic requirement by virtue of its phonological status, and there
do not seem to be other cases of this.
This does at first seem to have one rather unfortunate consequence,
since with thematic null subjects not requiring licensing, expletive null
subjects seem to have been left isolated. However, there appear to be
some arguments for treating them as a separate empty category. First,
whilst, in languages in which they occur, covert thematic subjects exist
alongside overt thematic subjects, there is generally no overt version
of covert non-thematic subjects in such languages.22 Also, if null non-
thematic subjects were the same entities as null thematic subjects but
without thematic content, then it would be logical to assume that the
same relationship existed for overt non-thematic and thematic subjects.
This works very well for non-thematic it, which with thematic content be-
comes thematic it but there is no thematic pronominal subject equivalent
of expletive subject pronoun there. Furthermore, trying to assimilate non-
thematic null subjects and thematic null subjects into the same entity in
such a language as Spanish or Italian is a little peculiar because the never
expressed non-thematic pronoun suddenly becomes expressible when it
gains thematic content.

6. Conclusion

The aim of this article has been to establish a theory of why thematic pro-
nouns are covert or covert, focusing on subjects. Analysis of an array of
data established that, in languages with wide scale agreement and null
subjects, prima facie, recovery of such null subjects is made first by refer-
ence to discrete agreement and if that fails by reference to an antecedent
in context. Subsequently, preferred interpretations are resorted to and
then overt pronouns. Every language is at a certain point on a scale of
584 M. D. Cole

morphological maximality up to which agreement must recover null sub-

jects. It is further concluded that, in languages where null subjects occur,
resort is had to an antecedent in context to complete their recovery,
whereas in languages where they do not occur, this is not possible. This
is put down to the fact that some languages are contextually strong and
others are contextually weak. This proposal has the consequence that the
syntactic licensing of thematic null subjects is redundant. Consequently, it
is deemed necessary to treat non-thematic null pronouns as a separate
empty category that may require syntactic licensing.
Further research is also well advanced in relation to the application of
an adapted form of Ariel’s (1988, 1990, 1994, 2001) theory of accessibility
to the concepts of contextual strength and weakness.23

Received 4 November 2003 University of Manchester

Revised version received
7 August 2006

Notes

1. Thanks are due to my PhD supervisor, Professor Nigel Vincent for his advice and en-
couragement long after I had ceased to be his responsibility. They are also due to two
anonymous reviewers. I should also like to express my gratitude to all those who pro-
vided me with examples, including Ketmanee Ausmangokol, whose Thai examples I
have been unable to use. Errors of any kind in this article are my responsibility. Corre-
spondence address: 14 Heathview, Kellbrook Crescent, Salford, Manchester M7 3GH,
United Kingdom. E-mail: melancole1@hotmail.com.
2. C.-T. James Huang’s operator variable analysis was a bold and innovative solution to
the problem and the vast majority of the theory upon which the objections were based
appear not to have been expounded in the literature until after the publication of his
article.
3. Example supplied by Feng Shou Gu, University of Manchester.
4. Example taken from Chierchia (1989).
5. The table has been altered from that on p. 77 of Enfield (2007), but only in order better
to reflect his subsequent observation that man2, haw2 and phen1 are used as both
plural and singular. The numbers refer to tones. Tone 1 has a level contour around
the middle pitch range, tone 2 a high-rising contour, beginning around the mid-range
and going to high, tone 3 a low rising contour, beginning around the bottom of the
pitch range and rising sharply, (sometimes pronounced as a low level tone without a
rising o¤set), tone 4 a high-falling contour, beginning at the top of the pitch range
and falling sharply, tone 5 a mid-falling contour, starting at the middle of the pitch
range and falling to low.
6. Information gathered from Morey (2005) and examination of glossed texts Stephen
Morey kindly sent with his personal communication.
7. Turkish example provided by Dr. Evren Erem. Japanese examples supplied by Dr.
Chaoki Taoka.
 Null subjects 585

8. Example from Vitale (1981: 117).

9. Examples and information in Serbian, Macedonian and Bulgarian obtained respec-
tively from Vladislava Ribnikar of Nottingham University, Dr. Vesna Stojanovik of
Reading University and Dr. Ilya Nedin of the School of Slavonic and East European
studies at University College London.
10. Amharic examples supplied by Bodja Gelatcha and Semaw Mekonen, MSc’s at Man-
chester University. Their transcription has been confirmed by Dr. David Appleyard of
SOAS, whose patience in relation to this complex language I am extremely grateful for.
In the examples, I have followed Dr. Appleyard in denoting the component -all- used
in forming the compound imperfect tense as MVM (‘‘main verb marker’’). Amharic
has a simple imperfect tense, marked IMP in the examples, and a compound imperfect
tense. Both have separate functions, for which the reader is referred to Appleyard
(1995).
11. See Cole (1982).
12. Example (22) taken from Huang (2000). Examples (23)–(26) supplied by Dr. Cecilia
Goria of Nottingham University.
13. Regarding Examples (23) and (24), seven informants confirmed the first person pre-
ferred interpretation of the subject of sappia and three said that even if a first person
interpretation were intended, this would not be clear without an overt pronoun. This
reflects the view expressed in Cardinaletti (1997) that not all Italians accept such pre-
ferred interpretations.
14. Examples supplied Hongzhu Li and Zhao Wan, students at Manchester University and
Manchester Business School respectively, and confirmed by Wen Jiang, student at
Manchester University.
15. Swedish example supplied by Professor Kersti Borjars of Manchester University.
16. Icelandic example checked with Dr. Katrin Lund of University of Iceland.
17. Examples from C-T. J. Huang (1984).
18. Bengali also has considerable morphology in the second and third person for honorific
level.
19. Examples (35), (36), and (40) supplied by Dr. Gupta, ex-member of German Depart-
ment at Manchester University. All other Bengali examples provided by ‘‘Ike’’ Chow-
dury.
20. Information from Y. Huang (2000: 89)
21. According to Anders Holmberg, Finnish and Marathi appear to be partial pro drop
languages that, in certain circumstances, require pronominal subjects to be overt, even
with rich subject agreement. This requires further research.
22. In Finnish, according to Holmberg (2005), depending on the circumstances, an exple-
tive subject can be overt. Also, Adam Ledgeway (p.c.) informs me that overt expletive
subjects can occur in most Campanian dialects and some dialects of Calabria and
Sicily.
23. This research will need to address the fact recently discovered that Hindi seems to
allow unexpressed pronouns in a manner that is orthogonal to agreement. Informants
are being consulted.

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