The role of L1 typology and L2 proficiency in null subject transfer

Thesis

This dissertation is a large-scale investigation on the omission of subject pronouns by learners of null-subject languages. A null-subject language is one where pronouns are either optional or unnecessary to make reference to a primary subject. In these languages, (which includes, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Swahili, and many others) dropping a pronoun does not result in ambiguity. However, English is a non-null-subject language and a subject pronoun is always requ...

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Authors: Smallwood, J

• Type of award: MSc
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: typology; null subject; corpus; transfer
• Subjects: Corpora (Linguistics); Typology (Linguistics); Linguistics