THE PRONOUN 'IT' AS AN EMPTY SUBJECT IN ENGLISH – IS THERE AN EQUIVALENT IN ALBANIAN LANGUAGE?

Abstract

Word order is crucialwhen we studythe functionsof words in different sentences and constructions. The position of words in sentences and their function are closely observed in comparative studies. Function is not solely determined by the position of words in sentences. There are languages with fixed word order (like English language) and languages with flexible word order (like Albanian language).An important difference discussed in this paper is that English is a non-null subject language which means that subjects are grammatically mandatory. On the other hand, Albanian language is a null subject language and there arevarious sentences without a subject. Having in mind that the term empty subject is somehownew in English, questions are raised whether there are empty subjects in other languages and if they are recognized as syntactic constituents. The empty subject expressed with the pronoun ‘it’ is used to introduce a clause or provide a grammatical structure with no clear referent, but serves as a grammatical necessity. Examples with empty subjects in English language are translated to Albanian language in order to see if there are similarities or differences, or if there are empty subjects in Albanian language. However, the analysis in this paper found nosuch equivalents in translated sentencesto Albanian language, especially when talking about empty subjects.Subjects in Albanian language are expressed explicitly and clearly and there is no need of an empty subject when the grammar of Albanian language and the word order allows sentences with no subject. Subjects, whether they are real or emptysubjects (semantically empty), are usually found in the initial position in English. While this is generally true in Englishlanguage, with some exceptions, it is not always the case with Albanian language because of the word order and null subject properties. Empty subjects have been studied for some time in English language, but there are not vast studies comparing empty subjects in English and Albanian language. The pronoun ‘it’ is an essential feature of English language to refer to time, weather, emotions and more (It is ten o’clock. It is sunny. It is unbelievable!). The pronoun ‘it’ in English languageis not used only to express empty/dummy subjects. It can also be used as anticipatory ‘it’, which means that ‘it’ can be used to refer to a real subject found after the verb (It is likely that we will be late.). These are not rare occasions in English, but when these sentences are translated from English to Albanian language there are differences, including different word order or no subject at all in Albanian language (It is late./Është vonë.).Another important use of the pronoun ‘it’ is that it can be used in passive constructions as an empty subject (It is believed that he is guilty./Besohet se është me faj.) and the real subject is extraposed. Empty subject ‘it’ can be challenging for non-native speakers to master its varied uses and functions. Learners must master the use of ‘it’ in a variety of contexts and understand nuances and differences in meaning with translated sentences from English to Albanian language.The analysis of similarities and differences highlights divergences between these two languages. These findings contribute to understand the syntax and semantics of English and Albanian language by highlighting cross-linguistic variations.