Is a language without inflection a language without subject?

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Subject is defined as the argument which agrees with the affixes of the verb. But if a language does not have inflectional affixes, can you state that this particular language does not have syntactic functions ?






grammatical-subject declension







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  • The title and body of this question don’t seem to match. Verb inflection is typically called “conjugation”, not “declension”.
    – sumelic
    43 mins ago











  • you are right, I changed the title.
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up vote
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Subject is defined as the argument which agrees with the affixes of the verb. But if a language does not have inflectional affixes, can you state that this particular language does not have syntactic functions ?






grammatical-subject declension







share|improve this question









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amegnunsen is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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  • The title and body of this question don’t seem to match. Verb inflection is typically called “conjugation”, not “declension”.
    – sumelic
    43 mins ago











  • you are right, I changed the title.
    – amegnunsen
    12 mins ago












up vote
1
down vote

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up vote
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down vote

favorite











Subject is defined as the argument which agrees with the affixes of the verb. But if a language does not have inflectional affixes, can you state that this particular language does not have syntactic functions ?






grammatical-subject declension







share|improve this question









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amegnunsen is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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Subject is defined as the argument which agrees with the affixes of the verb. But if a language does not have inflectional affixes, can you state that this particular language does not have syntactic functions ?






grammatical-subject declension




grammatical-subject declension






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  • The title and body of this question don’t seem to match. Verb inflection is typically called “conjugation”, not “declension”.
    – sumelic
    43 mins ago











  • you are right, I changed the title.
    – amegnunsen
    12 mins ago
















  • The title and body of this question don’t seem to match. Verb inflection is typically called “conjugation”, not “declension”.
    – sumelic
    43 mins ago











  • you are right, I changed the title.
    – amegnunsen
    12 mins ago















The title and body of this question don’t seem to match. Verb inflection is typically called “conjugation”, not “declension”.
– sumelic
43 mins ago





The title and body of this question don’t seem to match. Verb inflection is typically called “conjugation”, not “declension”.
– sumelic
43 mins ago













you are right, I changed the title.
– amegnunsen
12 mins ago




you are right, I changed the title.
– amegnunsen
12 mins ago










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"Subject" is not defined as the argument which agrees with the affixes of the verb. Sometimes, "subject" is defined as that argument which verbs agree with. In the modern era, you might start with the paper by Ed Keenan, "Towards a universal definition of “subject”", in Li (ed) 1975 Subject and topic. Keenan had about 30 properties that he associated with subjecthood, which are not all necessary or sufficient. There is a methodological problem with the concept of "definition" in linguistics, that we don't have a theory of what a "definition" is, so one might present "a fundamental characteristic of a thing" as part of the definition of the thing. Or, one might present identificational diagnostics as part of the "definition" of a thing.






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    "Subject" is not defined as the argument which agrees with the affixes of the verb. Sometimes, "subject" is defined as that argument which verbs agree with. In the modern era, you might start with the paper by Ed Keenan, "Towards a universal definition of “subject”", in Li (ed) 1975 Subject and topic. Keenan had about 30 properties that he associated with subjecthood, which are not all necessary or sufficient. There is a methodological problem with the concept of "definition" in linguistics, that we don't have a theory of what a "definition" is, so one might present "a fundamental characteristic of a thing" as part of the definition of the thing. Or, one might present identificational diagnostics as part of the "definition" of a thing.






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      "Subject" is not defined as the argument which agrees with the affixes of the verb. Sometimes, "subject" is defined as that argument which verbs agree with. In the modern era, you might start with the paper by Ed Keenan, "Towards a universal definition of “subject”", in Li (ed) 1975 Subject and topic. Keenan had about 30 properties that he associated with subjecthood, which are not all necessary or sufficient. There is a methodological problem with the concept of "definition" in linguistics, that we don't have a theory of what a "definition" is, so one might present "a fundamental characteristic of a thing" as part of the definition of the thing. Or, one might present identificational diagnostics as part of the "definition" of a thing.






      share|improve this answer






















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        up vote
        4
        down vote









        "Subject" is not defined as the argument which agrees with the affixes of the verb. Sometimes, "subject" is defined as that argument which verbs agree with. In the modern era, you might start with the paper by Ed Keenan, "Towards a universal definition of “subject”", in Li (ed) 1975 Subject and topic. Keenan had about 30 properties that he associated with subjecthood, which are not all necessary or sufficient. There is a methodological problem with the concept of "definition" in linguistics, that we don't have a theory of what a "definition" is, so one might present "a fundamental characteristic of a thing" as part of the definition of the thing. Or, one might present identificational diagnostics as part of the "definition" of a thing.






        share|improve this answer












        "Subject" is not defined as the argument which agrees with the affixes of the verb. Sometimes, "subject" is defined as that argument which verbs agree with. In the modern era, you might start with the paper by Ed Keenan, "Towards a universal definition of “subject”", in Li (ed) 1975 Subject and topic. Keenan had about 30 properties that he associated with subjecthood, which are not all necessary or sufficient. There is a methodological problem with the concept of "definition" in linguistics, that we don't have a theory of what a "definition" is, so one might present "a fundamental characteristic of a thing" as part of the definition of the thing. Or, one might present identificational diagnostics as part of the "definition" of a thing.







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