Re: Pro-drop was RE: Conlang collaboration
| From: | Doug Dee <amateurlinguist@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, February 16, 2003, 19:41 |
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In a message dated 2/16/2003 7:38:49 AM Eastern Standard Time,
joe@WANTAGE.COM writes:
> Why, though, isn't germanic pro-drop? 'kills him' would be impossible with
> any
> other pronoun apart from 'he', and German is even less ambiguous. All
> you'd
> need pronouns for would be 'wir' and 'sie'(3rd pl/2nd sing, not 3rd sing).
> Why aren't they pro drop?
>
I don't think anyone knows the answer to that (those "why" questions are
always the hardest). I've read that Germanic, French, & Swiss Rhaeto-Romance
are highly unusual in not allowing pro-drop even when the person & number of
the subject is clearly indicated by the verbal inflection. Apparently,
pro-drop is the norm elsewhere.
Doug
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