[Lingtyp] Partial pro-drop

[Mira Ariel]

From: Omri Amiraz <Omri.Amiraz at mail.huji.ac.il>
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2025 10:24 AM
To: Mira Ariel <mariel at tauex.tau.ac.il>; Juergen Bohnemeyer <jb77 at buffalo.edu>
Cc: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Partial pro-drop


Dear Juergen and Mira,

It is certainly true that SAPs tend to be more accessible. However, we’re approaching this from a variationist perspective, focusing on speakers’ choices in contexts where the referent is already accessible, rather than across all clause types.

Accessibility of mental representations is not + or -. It comes in many degrees. Even SAPs can be more or less accessible in different cases. I have a paper on that too.

 In that sense, the alternation we’re interested in is essentially between independent pronouns and zero (possibly in combination with verbal subject marking).

It can be 0 or unstressed (or stressed) pronoun, and it can be a shortened pronoun (I often found that for SAPs in Hebrew future tense).

I’m not sure that information structure alone can account for the obligatory use of subject pronouns in these cases. For instance, in Hebrew past tense clauses, the independent pronoun does not add any information beyond what is already encoded by verbal agreement. So I don’t really understand why it is used, except in cases of focus or contrast, as Juergen mentioned.

Mental accessibility does not depend (only) on content. Lower accessibility can trigger a pronoun even when the verb has person agreement. The difference between past and future tense in Hebrew is NOT that past tense is more informative about which person is intended. It’s that the referential element in future verbal forms is so opaque that it doesn’t count as referential. In the past tense it’s transparent, basically a shortened pronoun, hence still referentially viable.

I also agree that ambiguity avoidance might not be the main factor, though it may play a role in particular contexts and perhaps motivate broader developments.

Many thanks again for the references!

You’re welcome!

Mira

Best,
Omri

On Thu, Oct 30, 2025 at 4:59 AM Mira Ariel <mariel at tauex.tau.ac.il<mailto:mariel at tauex.tau.ac.il>> wrote:
Hi Omri,


  1.  I agree with Juergen. Since SAPs tend to be more accessible their coding is shorter (High accessibility > shorter referential forms). This is why they are more often either 0 marked or else their pronouns are cliticized, sometimes leading to the rise of agreement markers for 1st/2nd persons only on the verb. This explains the findings for Hebrew, I suggested. See:

1998. Three grammaticalization paths for the development of person verbal agreement in Hebrew. In: Discourse and cognition: Bridging the gap, edited by J.-P. Koenig. CSLI Publications

2000. The development of person agreement markers: From pronouns to higher accessibility markers. In: Usage-based models of language, edited by M. Barlow and S. Kemmer


  1.  In my experience, avoiding ambiguity is not a very strong motivation for language change, because context does miracles. Maybe not in the case of I versus you versus 3rd person?



  1.  There is no reason to think that a single factor explains all 0/pronoun alternations in all languages.

Best,
Mira (Ariel)





From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>> On Behalf Of Juergen Bohnemeyer via Lingtyp
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2025 10:04 PM
To: Omri Amiraz <Omri.Amiraz at mail.huji.ac.il<mailto:Omri.Amiraz at mail.huji.ac.il>>; lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Partial pro-drop

Dear Omri et al. — I might look at this from a slightly different perspective. Suppose you change the question as follows:

‘Among indexes in pro-drop languages (i.e., languages in which co-nominals are syntactically optional), indexes of which person are more/less frequently accompanied by a co-nominal?’

If you put it like that, it seems rather obvious to me that the answer is that SAP indexes are less frequently accompanied by co-nominals. Why? Because SAPs are inherently maximally accessible, whereas non-SAPs may or may not be accessible - a significant percentage of them is even indefinite.

Plus, in many languages (or so it seems to me), there aren’t even great choices for nominals to accompany SAP indexes. One might use independent pronouns, but only in contexts in which this makes sense, such as for contrastive topics and under focus.

I can’t think of a good reference for this off the top of my head. Not too many authors have looked at argument realization in strictly head-marking languages, and those that have, like Bohnemeyer & Tilbe (2021), didn’t break down results by person. Sorry.

Best — Juergen

Bohnemeyer, J. & T. J. Tilbe. (2021). Argument realization and discourse status in Yucatec, a purely head-marking language. Amerindia 43: 249-289.


Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)
Professor, Department of Linguistics
University at Buffalo

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From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>> on behalf of Omri Amiraz via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>>
Date: Wednesday, October 29, 2025 at 11:38
To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>>
Subject: [Lingtyp] Partial pro-drop
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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