<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Wingdings;
panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Aptos;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Aptos Display";}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#467886;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.StileMessaggioDiPostaElettronica18
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:11.0pt;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
@page WordSection1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:70.85pt 2.0cm 2.0cm 2.0cm;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:807626480;
mso-list-template-ids:-1612793556;}
@list l0:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:36.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:o;
mso-level-tab-stop:72.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
@list l0:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:108.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:144.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:180.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:216.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:252.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:288.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Wingdings;}
@list l0:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:324.0pt;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-18.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Wingdings;}
ol
{margin-bottom:0cm;}
ul
{margin-bottom:0cm;}
--></style></head><body lang=IT link="#467886" vlink="#96607D" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Dear Yiming, Omri and all,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Modern Irish varieties could be a case in point that may be worth examining.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>As a result of change, some persons of some tenses have inflectional person indexes (mainly 1<sup>st</sup> and 2<sup>nd</sup> singular, 1<sup>st</sup> plural), that cannot combine with independent subject pronouns, while other persons in the paradigm employ a default person form (historically the 3<sup>rd</sup> singular form) combined with a nominal or pronominal subject. While with inflected 1<sup>st</sup> and 2<sup>nd</sup> person forms overt subject pronouns are barred, with the default person forms a subject phrase, whether pronominal or nominal, is obligatory. Third person is basically non-pro-drop for all tenses since referential subjects must be overt, while expletives tend to be so (although different dialects may behave differently). Southern dialects are more conservative and preserve a greater number of inflected person forms than the standard and the other varieties (you may glean an overview of inflectional paradigms of a southern dialect through this website <a href="https://corkirish.wordpress.com/verb-conjugation/">https://corkirish.wordpress.com/verb-conjugation/</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>I refer you to<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>McCloskey, James & Kenneth Hale. </span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>On the syntax of person-number inflection in Modern Irish. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 1(4) (1984): 487-533<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>(<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00417057">https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00417057</a>)</span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=GA style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Ó Siadhail, Mícheál, </span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Modern Irish. Grammatical structure and dialectal variation. Cambridge, CUP 1989 (<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/search?filters%5BauthorTerms%5D=M%C3%ADche%C3%A1l%20%C3%B3siadhail&eventCode=SE-AU">https://www.cambridge.org/core/search?filters%5BauthorTerms%5D=M%C3%ADche%C3%A1l%20%C3%B3siadhail&eventCode=SE-AU</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Hickey, </span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Raymond. The Dialects of Irish. Study of a Changing Landscape. Mouton de Gruyter 2011<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>For the historical development in particular my old paper (I can share it)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Roma, Elisa. How Subject Pronouns spread in Irish. A diachronic study and synchronic account of the third person+ pronoun pattern. Ériu 51 (2000): 107-157.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>All the Best,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Elisa<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Elisa Roma<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Associate professor of Linguistics<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Università di Pavia<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>elisa.roma@unipv.it<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Da:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org> <b>Per conto di </b>Omri Amiraz via Lingtyp<br><b>Inviato:</b> mercoledì 29 ottobre 2025 16.39<br><b>A:</b> lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org<br><b>Oggetto:</b> [Lingtyp] Partial pro-drop<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Dear colleagues,<br><br>We are conducting a study on the inverse correlation between the frequency of pro-drop (omission of the subject argument) and syncretism in verbal subject-marking paradigms.<br><br>We are particularly interested in partial pro-drop languages, where subject omission is restricted to certain persons or other grammatical conditions. For example, in Hebrew, pro-drop is fairly common in the past tense for first and second person, but relatively rare for third person. This is puzzling, since the past-tense paradigm in Hebrew shows no syncretism, so it is unclear why the third-person pronoun cannot generally be omitted as well.<br><br>We would greatly appreciate your input on the following points:<br><br>1. Are you aware of other languages that exhibit partial pro-drop?<br>We are currently aware of Hebrew, Finnish, Yiddish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Russian. This might point to an areal phenomenon, so examples from other areas would be especially valuable.<br><br>2. In the languages you are familiar with, does third person indeed tend to be the least likely to allow pro-drop?<br>If so, are you aware of any proposed explanations for this asymmetry?<br><br>Many thanks in advance for your insights,<br>Yiming and Omri<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></body></html>