Editing Null-subject language (section)

== Characterization ==
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Languages which are not null-subject languages usually require an explicit subject. English and French make an exception for the imperative mood, or where a subject is mentioned in the same sentence, one immediately preceding it, or where the subject is implied. These languages can sometimes drop pronouns in limited contexts: e.g, German for "please", ''Bitte'', literally means "[I] beg", and in English "Not happy!" would be clearly understood as the first person singular "''I am'' not happy". Similarly, in some cases the additional inclusion of pronouns in English has equivalent force to their optional inclusion in Spanish or Italian: e.g, "I cook, I wash up and I do the shopping" is more emphatic than simply "I cook, wash up and do the shopping".

Subjects may sometimes be dropped in colloquial speech where the subject is implied.

In the framework of [[government and binding theory]] of [[syntax]], the term ''null subject'' refers to an [[empty category]]. The empty category in question is thought to behave like an ordinary [[pronoun]] with respect to [[anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric reference]] and other grammatical behavior. Hence it is most commonly referred to as "''pro''".

This phenomenon is similar, but not identical, to that of [[pro-drop language]]s, which may omit pronouns, including subject pronouns, but also [[object (grammar)|object]] pronouns. While all pro-drop languages are null-subject languages, not all null-subject languages are pro-drop.

In null-subject languages that have [[verb]] [[inflection]] in which the verb inflects for person, the [[grammatical person]] of the subject is reflected by the inflection of the verb and likewise for [[grammatical number|number]] and [[grammatical gender|gender]].