Subjectless Sentences in English

概要

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The present study investigates when, where, and why subjectless sentences occur in English, a nonpro-drop language that normally requires a subject. To achieve this goal, 146 examples collected frommultiple sources, such as flyers, advertisements, bulk emails, and so on, are examined from syntactic,semantic, and pragmatic perspectives. It is found that subjectless sentences occur more often with thepresent tense, main clauses, pronouns with immediacy (I, you, and we as opposed to s/he, they, and it),and verbs used on a everyday basis rather than those used in formal settings. The major function ofsubjectless sentences is found to lubricate interactions between participants. Based on these findings,the necessary and sufficient conditions for the phenomenon of subject deletion are proposed.
2010-03-31