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Pro-drop Languages
Think English should be a pro drop language. Don't like using pronouns. Make me angry. What think? Think that if start talking like this without pronouns anyone will start to follow me? My wish and hope will come true.
Goodbye. Going to spread the word.
English Wikipedia offers good informative articles about pro-drop and null-subject languages.
But a question is nowhere answered: "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, a Romance language, and many others." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_subject_language Which "MANY OTHERS"? Do you known at least one of them? This map on page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-drop_language shows that in Europe the non-pro-drop area is restricted to Germanic languages and French. Then, there must be non European language with non-pro-drop features, but which ones? Thanks for any information you can provide.
<<Spanish, Italian etc. are pro-drop languages - perhaps they never made use of pronouns in their history, since Germanic influence was present but to a less extent.>>
Germanic influence has nothing to do with it. French is the only non-null subject romance language because of the degeneration of the inflexional structure of the language. When languages lose verb inflections, they naturally come to depend on the pronoun to show grammatical person; its a product of simplification, and nothing more. French is the most simplified romance language, and furthest removed from latin grammar.
<<Think English should be a pro drop language. Don't like using pronouns. Make me angry. What think? Think that if start talking like this without pronouns anyone will start to follow me? My wish and hope will come true.
Goodbye. Going to spread the word. >> Actually, in some cases, the pronoun can be dropped in English. I recall that my grandmother often used to start sentences (in letters anyway) with Am rather than I'm. Example: "Am writing this from Lava Beds National Monument, where we're staying for the summer ....".
<< French is the only non-null subject romance language because of the degeneration of the inflexional structure of the language. >>
<< When languages lose verb inflections, they naturally come to depend on the pronoun to show grammatical person; its a product of simplification, and nothing more. >> -- L'inverse est plus vrai. C'est PARCE QUE le français maintenait les pronoms sujets que la plupart des désinences verbales ont pu devenir muettes au cours du Moyen-Age. Il n'y a pas de relation directe entre richesse d'inflection et omission des pronoms. Les langues scandinaves sont les plus simples au point de vue désinences: Suédois ('vara' = 'to be'): jag är du är han (hon, den, det) är vi är ni är dom (de) är L'allemand est beaucoup plus différencié: ich bin du bist er (sie, es) ist wir sind ihr seid sie sind Une seule éventuelle ambigüité: 'sind' pour 'wir' et 'sie' De même, le français: je suis tu es il est nous sommes vous êtes ils sont Une seule éventuelle ambigüité: 'es' et 'est', non différenciés dans la prononciation, pour 'tu' et 'il' En italien: (io) sono (tu) sei (lui) è (noi) siamo (voi) siete (loro) sono Une seule éventuelle ambigüité: 'sono' pour 'io' et 'loro'. Pour ce verbe, le plus usité de tous, on a donc la même situation en français, en allemand et en italien. Et pourtant seul l'italien est pro-drop, pas le français ou l'allemand ! Pourquoi ?
<< Actually, in some cases, the pronoun can be dropped in English. I recall that my grandmother often used to start sentences (in letters anyway) with Am rather than I'm. Example:
"Am writing this from Lava Beds National Monument, where we're staying for the summer ....". >> This seems to be an idiosyncratic usage. I have seen things like this before, but it's not very common. - Kef
'Guest' : « French is the most simplified romance language, and furthest removed from latin grammar. »
Ça y est, c'est reparti !... Tu vas nous ressortir les stats de Mario Pei ?!
« French is the most simplified romance language, and furthest removed from latin grammar. »
Isn´t the statement above a widely accepted fact?
Non. Mais de toute façon le propos que tu cites contient deux affirmations distinctes que rien ne relie a priori. On pourrait également avancer que le français est plus éloigné de la grammaire japonaise que l'italien (ou l'inverse) mais cela n'aurait pas grand intérêt. On pourrait aussi penser qu'interlingua est la plus simplifiée des langues romanes mais ça ne ferait pas avancer le schmilblick d'un iota, je crois.
If one looks at the world of today, Romance languages seem to be in the weaker position regarding high technology. Simple language = simple mind?
<<If one looks at the world of today, Romance languages seem to be in the weaker position regarding high technology. Simple language = simple mind?>>
Ha ha ha. Nothing to do with it. The balances of power shift often in science. Today it's English, yesterday it was Russian and German, the day before it was French and Italian. Tomorrow who knows what it will be. It could even be farting.
Yes, farting is very likely to be the next language of science, I agree completely.
<<Are scince and technology linked in any way to languages? >>
good point and rephrasing: can science(and technology) be done in any language?
Scientific advances were writen in Latin until the XVIII century. English is the language of science since a few days and still some believe that English speakers are better prepared to make scientific advances just because they speak English. Arrogance and Anglo stupidity at its best.
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