A pro-sentence is a sentence where the subject pronoun has been dropped and therefore the sentence has a null subject.

Overview

Languages differ within this parameter, some languages such as Italian and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

have constant pro-drop, Finnish and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

for example are partial pro-drop languages and

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

and Tamil fall into the category of discourse or radical pro-drop languages. There are also languages such as English, German and Swedish that only allow pro-drop within very strict stylistic conditions. A pro-sentence is a kind of

pro-form In linguistics, a pro-form is a type of function word or expression that stands in for (expresses the same content as) another word, phrase, clause or sentence where the meaning is recoverable from the context. They are used either to avoid repe ...

and is therefore anaphoric. In

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

, ''yes'', ''no'' and ''

okay ''OK'' (spelling variations include ''okay'', ''O.K.'', ''ok'' and ''Ok'') is an English word (originating in American English) denoting approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, acknowledgment, or a sign of indifference. ''OK'' is frequently ...

'' are common pro-sentences. In response to the question "Does Mars have two moons?", the sentence "Yes" can be understood to abbreviate "Mars does have two moons." Pro-sentences are sometimes seen as grammatical

interjection An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction. It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curse ...

s, since they are capable of very limited syntactical relations. But they can also be classified as a distinct

part of speech In grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech ( abbreviated as POS or PoS, also known as word class or grammatical category) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are as ...

, given that (other) interjections have

meaning Meaning most commonly refers to: * Meaning (linguistics), meaning which is communicated through the use of language * Meaning (philosophy), definition, elements, and types of meaning discussed in philosophy * Meaning (non-linguistic), a general te ...

s of their own and are often described as expressions of

feeling Feelings are subjective self-contained phenomenal experiences. According to the ''APA Dictionary of Psychology'', a feeling is "a self-contained phenomenal experience"; and feelings are "subjective, evaluative, and independent of the sensations ...

s or

emotion Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. ...

Yes and no

In some languages, the equivalents to ''yes'' and ''no'' may substitute not only a whole sentence, but also a part of it, either the subject and the

verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...

, or the verb and a

complement A complement is something that completes something else. Complement may refer specifically to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-clas ...

, and can also constitute a subordinate

clause In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb wi ...

. The

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Port ...

word '' sim'' (''yes'') gives a good example: :Q: Ela está em casa? A: Acredito ''que sim''. — Q: Is she at home? A: I believe ''that she is'' (literally, ''that yes''). :Ela não saiu de casa, mas ''o John sim''. — She didn't leave home, but ''John did'' (literally, ''John yes''). In some languages, such as English, ''yes'' rebuts a negative question, whereas ''no'' affirms it. However, in

, the equivalents of ''no'' (''iie'', ''uun'', ''(i)ya'') rebut a negative question, whereas the equivalents of ''yes'' (''hai'', ''ee'', ''un'') affirm it. :Q: ''Wakarimasen deshita ka'' (''Did you not understand?'') :A: ''Hai, wakarimasen deshita'' (''No, I didn't'' — Literally ''That's right, I didn't understand'') Some languages have a specific word that rebuts a negative question.

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

has ''" doch"''; French has ''" si"''; Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish have '' jo'', Hungarian has ''" de"''. The English words "yes" and "no" were originally only used to respond to negative questions, while "yea" and "nay" were the proper responses to affirmative questions; this distinction was lost at some time in Early Modern English. :Q: ''Bist du nicht müde?'' (''Aren't you tired?'') :A: ''Doch. Ich gehe bald schlafen.'' (''Yes. I'm about to go to sleep.'')

In philosophy

The prosentential theory of truth developed by Dorothy Grover,

Nuel Belnap Nuel Dinsmore Belnap Jr. (; born 1930) is an American logician and philosopher who has made contributions to the philosophy of logic, temporal logic, and structural proof theory. He taught at the University of Pittsburgh from 1963 until his re ...

, and

Joseph Camp Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

, and defended more recently by

Robert Brandom Robert Boyce Brandom (born March 13, 1950) is an American philosopher who teaches at the University of Pittsburgh. He works primarily in philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and philosophical logic, and his academic output manifests both sy ...

, holds that sentences like ''"p" is true'' and ''It is true that p'' should not be understood as ascribing properties to the sentence "p", but as a pro-sentence whose content is the same as that of "p." Brandom calls " . . .is true" a pro-sentence-forming operator.Brandom, ''Making it Explicit'', 1994.

References

* Holmberg, A. 2001. 'The syntax of yes and no in Finnish.' ''Studia Linguistica'' 55: 141- 174. {{Lexical categories, state=collapsed Parts of speech

Overview

Yes and no

In philosophy

See also

References