Authors

Discussion

In the Principles-and-Parameters framework, null subjects in finite clauses were particularly interesting from a cross-linguistic perspective, as they seemed to be attributable to a single parameter separating null subject languages (NSLs, e.g. Italian and Spanish), from those that require lexical or pronominal subjects (e.g., English and French). This view was in part driven by early attempts to identify a set of properties that characterize NSLs (Taraldsen 1980; Rizzi 1982) and the subsequent attempt to offer a generalized theory of null pronouns, so-called “little pros”, in both subject and object positions (Rizzi 1986). The theory was subsequently extended to “non-referential” instances of null arguments, the so-called “arbitrary pro” (Cinque 1988; Cabredo-Hofherr 2003). Furthermore, it has been shown that grammar may also resort to discursive means e.g. in “radical pro-drop” languages such as Japanese and Chinese (Huang 1984, 1989). By now a number of subtypes of null subject languages have been identified and a number of divisions and subdivisions have been proposed. This talk aims to present a review of NSL properties relevant for current syntactic enterprise.