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SUMMARY:The pro cycle - Jan Terje Faarlund\, University of Oslo
DTSTART:20111121T160000Z
DTEND:20111121T173000Z
UID:TALK34448@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:David Willis
DESCRIPTION:The argument in this paper is based on the premise that null s
 ubjects are pronouns with no phonological substance\, called pro\, which m
 ay receive case and theta-role. Null subject languages may differ as to th
 e referential  properties of pro\, in some languages pro may have specific
  reference\, in others only generic or expletive reference\, and again in 
 others there is no pro at all. In some languages pro may also function as 
 a complement. Pro is found in languages with or without rich verb agreemen
 t. There is thus no direct correlation between pro and subject-verb agreem
 ent. Many of the languages with obligatory subject (e.g. Scandinavian\, En
 glish\, French) have developed from earlier stages with null subjects. Thi
 s can be described as a loss of pro from the lexicon of those languages. T
 his 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 phon
 ologically empty item is insufficient\, and pro is lost from the language.
  This would also account for the apparent unidirectionality of the loss of
  null subjects. However\, there are cases of null subjects as an innovatio
 n (e.g. contemporary colloquial French). Furthermore\, since pro is such a
  widespread phenomenon cross-linguistically\, there must be causes why it 
 still exists after more than 100\,000 years of language development\, and 
 why it originated in the first place. The paper will end by some attempts 
 to explain such facts.
LOCATION:GR-03\, English Faculty Building\, West Road
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