THE NULL GENERIC SUBJECT PRONOUN IN FINNISH
Anders Holmberg
University of Newcastle

Abstract
Constructions with a generic impersonal subject corresponding to English
'one' in Finnish are scrutinized. In Finnish these constructions never
have a visible subject or any impersonal morphology. It is argued that
the subject is a null pronoun which is assigned case and values the
f-features of T, just like a regular DP, but which is invisible to the
EPP and therefore always remains vP-internal. A typology of impersonal
constructions is discussed. An alternative theory, according to which
the agreement marking on the finite verb is itself a generic pronoun, is
discussed and rejected. Generic subject constructions in other languages
are discussed. The Finnish null 'one' is shown to be characteristic of
partial null subject languages only.