[Lingtyp] Partial pro-drop

[Omri Amiraz]

Dear colleagues,

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.

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.

We would greatly appreciate your input on the following points:

1. Are you aware of other languages that exhibit partial pro-drop?
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.

2. In the languages you are familiar with, does third person indeed tend to
be the least likely to allow pro-drop?
If so, are you aware of any proposed explanations for this asymmetry?

Many thanks in advance for your insights,
Yiming and Omri
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