Null Subjects in Non-null-subject Languages
Other languages (sometimes called non-null-subject languages) require each sentence to include a subject: this is the case for most Germanic languages, such as English and German, but also in French (unlike most other Romance language), and many others. In some cases, colloquial expressions, particularly in English, less so in German, and occasionally in French, allow for the omission of the subject in the same way that languages such as Spanish and Russian allow using "correct" grammar:
- "Bumped into George this morning." (I)
- "Agreed to have a snifter to catch up on old times." (We)
- "Told me what the two of you had been up to." (He)
- "Went down to Brighton for the weekend?" (You)
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Famous quotes containing the words null, subjects and/or languages:
“A strong person makes the law and custom null before his own will.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls
Are their males’ subjects and at their controls:
Man, more divine, the master of all these,
Lord of the wide world and wild watery seas,
Indued with intellectual sense and souls,
Of more pre-eminence than fish and fowls,
Are masters to their females, and their lords:
Then let your will attend on their accords.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)