Null subjects and Distinct Agreement in Modern Germanic

Abstract

A number of modern Germanic vernaculars (non-standard languages and dialects) allow first and second person null subjects (NSs), but not third person. In this chapter, the person asymmetry, and the relation between these NSs and agreement on finite verbs (and subordinators) are discussed. It is argued that it is not necessary to assume a specific Speech Act-feature in order to explain why third person NSs are disallowed. The crucial factor is instead assumed to be Distinct Agreement, i.e. the agreeing element must (uniquely) express the same φ‎-features and values for these features as the corresponding overt pronoun in order to allow an NS, including not only number and person, but also—crucially—gender.

Pro-drop in interrogatives and declaratives.

“…From this perspective, there is little theory-internal motivation for pursuing an account of null subjects that attributes a causal role to the morphological "richness" of verbs in synchronic grammar, as proposed by Taraldsen (1978), Rizzi (1982Rizzi ( , 1986 and Jaeggli/Safir (1989). At the same time, attempts to make the intuition precise by formulating an explicit and predictive theory of morphological richness (Rohrbacher 1999, Müller 2005, Tamburelli 2006) have not succeeded in capturing the diversity that is observed cross-linguistically (though see Rosenkvist 2018). This has led some authors to suggest that the connection between null subjects and rich verbal morphology is a matter of processing (e. g. Holmberg 2005, Ackema/Neeleman 2007 or an artefact of historical change (e. g. Fuß 2011), with no place in the theory of Universal Grammar.…”

“…Under "Other" we count all second person singular verb forms not ending in -s or -st. This category includes strong verbs in the past tense, preterite-presents, and subjunctive verbs.28 On the role of agreement distinctness, seeRosenkvist's (2018) Distinct Agreement Hypothesis andCole's (2009) notion of morphological maximality -though our implementation differs from theirs.…”