Editing Pro-drop language (section)

==Usage of term==

In [[Noam Chomsky]]'s "Lectures on Government and Binding", the term is used for a cluster of properties of which "[[null subject]]" was one (for the occurrence of ''pro'' as a [[Predicate (grammar)|predicate]] rather than a [[subject (grammar)|subject]] in sentences with the [[copula (linguistics)|copula]] see Moro 1997).{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}

Thus, a one-way correlation was suggested between [[agreement (linguistics)|inflectional agreement]] (AGR) and empty pronouns on the one hand and between no agreement and overt pronouns, on the other. In the classical version, languages which not only lack agreement morphology but also allow extensive dropping of pronouns—such as Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese—are not included, as is made clear in a footnote: "The principle suggested is fairly general, but does not apply to such languages as Japanese in which pronouns can be missing much more freely."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chomsky|first=Noam|url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110884166/html|title=Lectures on Government and Binding|date=2010-12-14|publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|isbn=978-3-11-088416-6|language=en|doi=10.1515/9783110884166}}</ref> (Chomsky 1981:284, fn 47).

The term pro-drop is also used in other frameworks in [[generative grammar]], such as in [[lexical functional grammar]] (LFG), but in a more general sense: "Pro-drop is a widespread linguistic phenomenon in which, under certain conditions, a structural NP may be unexpressed, giving rise to a pronominal interpretation."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bresnan|first=Joan|title=The Mental Representation of Grammatical Relations|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|year=1982|isbn=9780262021586|pages=384|language=English}}</ref> (Bresnan 1982:384).

The [[empty category]] assumed (under [[government and binding theory]]) to be present in the vacant subject position left by pro-dropping is known as ''pro'', or as "[[little pro]]" (to distinguish it from "[[big PRO]]", an empty category associated with [[non-finite verb]] phrases).<ref>R.L. Trask, ''A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics'', Routledge 2013, p. 218.</ref>