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A Null subject language is a language whose grammar allows sentences that do not explicitely include a subject. Often, the grammatical person of the subject can be understood from the verb endings, but this is not a rule: for example, Chinese has no inflectional endings.Sometimes, in null subject languages, although not needed, the subject may be used in order to emphasize the subject of the sentence.
Examples of these language include some Romance languages (such as Spanish, Italian, Romanian, etc), Arabic, and several Asian languages, especially Japanese.
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.
Examples
- Spanish: Te quiero (object - conjugated verb) -- the ending of the verb "-o" indicates the first person
- Non-null subject languages:
- English: I love you (subject - verb - object)
syntax
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