Editing Null-subject language (section)

{{Short description|Class of language where a sentence subject is not required}}
{{More citations needed|date=November 2012}}
{{Linguistic_typology topics}}

In [[linguistic typology]], a '''null-subject language''' is a [[language]] whose [[grammar]] permits an [[independent clause]] to lack an explicit [[subject (grammar)|subject]]; such a clause is then said to have a '''null subject'''.

In the [[principles and parameters]] framework, the null subject is controlled by the [[pro-drop parameter]], which is either on or off for a particular language.{{citation needed|date=May 2018}}

Typically, null-subject languages express [[Grammatical person|person]], [[Grammatical number|number]], and/or [[Grammatical gender|gender]] [[Agreement (linguistics)|agreement]] with the [[Coreference|referent]] on the verb, rendering a subject [[noun phrase]] redundant.

For example, in [[Italian language|Italian]] the subject "she" can be either explicit or implicit:

{{interlinear|indent=3|lang=it
|Maria non vuole mangiare.
|Maria not want [to-]eat
|"Maria does not want to eat."}}

{{interlinear|indent=3|lang=it
|{} Non vuole mangiare.
|[[Subject (grammar)|Subject]] not want [to-]eat
|"[(S)he] does not want to eat."}}

The subject "(s)he" of the second sentence is only implied in Italian. [[English language|English]] and [[French language|French]], on the other hand, require an explicit subject in this sentence.

<!-- Please don't add more examples without discussing on talk -->Null-subject languages include [[Arabic language|Arabic]], most [[Romance languages]], [[Chinese language|Chinese]], [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], the [[Indo-Aryan languages]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Korean language|Korean]], [[Persian language|Persian]], the [[Slavic languages]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], and the [[Turkic languages]].