Examples
The following examples come from Portuguese:
- "I'm going home" can be translated either as Vou para casa or as Eu vou para casa, where eu means "I".
- "It's raining" can be translated as Está chovendo, but not as *Ele está chovendo, where ele would correspond to English it.
- "I'm going home. I'm going to watch TV" would not, except in exceptional circumstances, be translated as Eu vou para casa. Eu vou ver televisão. At least the subject of the second sentence should be omitted in Portuguese unless one wishes to express emphasis, as to emphasise the I.
As the examples illustrate, in many null-subject languages, personal pronouns exist and can be used for emphasis but are dropped whenever they can be inferred from the context. Some sentences do not allow a subject in any form while, in other cases an explicit subject without particular emphasis, would sound awkward or unnatural.
Most Bantu languages are null-subject. For example, in Ganda, 'I'm going home' could be translated as Ŋŋenze ewange or as Nze ŋŋenze ewange, where nze means 'I'.
Read more about this topic: Null-subject Language
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