Subject Omission in Early Child Language

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 2,3, University of Cologne (Englisches Seminar I), course: Acquisition of Morpho-Syntax, language: English, abstract: The null-subject parameter or pro-drop parameter is one of the most discussed parameters in language acquisition. It is said that all children omit subjects until a certain age. Some studies claim that this happens due to the initial setting of the null-subject parameter. In this research paper different factors pertaining to the phenomenon of the so-called null-subject parameter will be discussed. During the essay the majority of the focus will be will be placed on the discussion of that parameter. Therefore, different studies, which examine and try to explain the phenomenon of the null-subject parameter and the omission of subjects in early child language will be consulted, discussed and reflected upon. The main goal of the paper will be to answer the question whether the non-null-subject parameter is set from the beginning in the grammar of children who acquire English as a first language. Firstly, a brief explanation of the Principles and Parameter Theory will be given and the null-subject parameter or pro-drop parameter and its importance in language acquisition will be explained. To facilitate the explanation of the said parameter some examples of sentences from non-null subject languages, such as English and null-subject languages, such as Italian, Greek and Spanish will be provided. Then, an overview of different approaches, studies and claims considering the null-subject parameter and the omission of subjects will be provided in order to outline the further processing of that essay. Secondly, it will be moved on to the next part of the paper where two opposed studies, which try to explain why children omit subjects and if the reason for that omission is the null-subject parameter, will be presented and described. In order not to go beyond the scope of this paper, not all the available studies on that topic will be discussed. In the next part of the paper, the selected studies' findings will be stated and reflected. Furthermore, these studies will be compared to each other, to show possible differences and similarities regarding the different approaches. Based on that, their importance concerning the omission of subjects and the null-subject parameter will be outlined and discussed critically. In the last part of the paper, the most important issues will be summarized and evaluated. Based on all findings of this paper and on the preceding discussion, a conclusion will be drawn in order to answer the research question.