Choosing between zero and pronominal subject: modeling subject expresion in the 1st person singular in Finnish conversation

Abstract

<p>The variability of subject expression has been extensively investigated<br />across languages. We present a large-scale multivariate statistical analysis of the<br />choice of subject expression in the 1st person singular in spontaneous Finnish<br />conversation, with a focus on the choice between pronominal and zero subject.<br />Spoken Finnish represents an interesting case, as the dominant type of subject<br />expression is double marking, i. e. the combination of a pronominal subject<br />marker (subject pronoun) and a verbal subject marker (person marking).<br />Siewierska (1999, From anaphoric pronoun to grammatical agreement marker:<br />Why objects don’t make it. Folia Linguistica 33(2). 225–251) notes that this type of<br />marking is typologically rare. Our findings indicate that the choice of subject<br />expression is affected by both constructional and cognitive/discourse factors,<br />and that an important role in the choice of subject expression is played by the<br />sequential structure of the conversation.<br /></p>