Expression of Pronominal Subjects (Feature 62)
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Feature Annotation
This feature captures aspects of the widely discussed pro-drop/non-pro-drop distinction.
Value 1 represents the typical non-pro-drop pattern (personal pronouns are used in subject position), and value 2 represents the typical pro-drop pattern with expression of pronoun arguments by verbal cross-referencing markers. Another pro-drop type is represented by value 5 (languages with no verbal cross-referencing markers, but frequent omission of overt pronouns).
Values 3 (subject clitic with variable host) and 4 (subject pronouns in different position from full NP subjects) are not found in any of the better known European or Asian languages. Value 6 is for languages with mixed behaviour (e.g. some pronouns are obligatory, others are optional).
Note that we are interested only in referential pronominal subjects here, i.e. expletive pronominal subjects are disregarded.
The distinction between value 1 (pronouns in subject position) and 5 (pronouns in subject position are often left out) is a gradual one. In the clearest case, value-5 languages would use the pronouns only for emphasis and disambiguation, while value-1 languages never omit them. But also languages in which the subject pronouns are omitted strikingly more often than in English should be classified as value 5.
Additional remarks
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Values
| Value | Value Annotation | |
| 1 | Pronominal subjects are obligatorilyexpressed by pronouns in subject position | English He came home. |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs | Spanish Vin-o a casa. ‘He came home’ (pronominal subject expressed by -o) |
| 3 | Pronominal subjects are expressed by clitics with variable host | e.g. in O’odham (Uto-Aztecan) |
| 4 | Pronominal subjects are expressed by subject pronouns that occur in a different syntactic position from full noun phrase subjects | e.g. in some Polynesian languages |
| 5 | Pronominal subjects are optionallyexpressed by pronouns in subject position and are often omitted | Chinese, Japanese, as well as some Asian contact languages (Ternateño, Sri Lanka Malay, Papia Kristang) |
| 6 | Mixed behaviour of pronominal subjects | Finnish (3rd person pronouns left out, others obligatory) |
WALS No.
101 (Total)
