The choice between a pronoun and zero anaphor for the expression of third-person subjects is examined in a corpus of Vera'a (Oceanic). While predominantly expressed by a pronoun, subjects are found to permit zero form with referents that have low anaphoric distance. Within this context, zero is found to be preferred with a subset of verbal predicates that take a specific tense-aspect-mood-polarity (TAMP) marker that historically retains subject agreement. The strong preference for pronouns is related to the clitic behavior of adjacent TAMP morphology and the rudimentarity of agreement. Animacy and number also bear on subject variation. Effects of clause-combining and the use of connectives do not align with findings from studies of the same choice in other languages. Our findings underscore the prominent role of purely structural over functional motivations for the choice of pronouns over zero.

中文翻译：

---

Vera'a中照应主题的表达：代词和零之间选择的功能和结构因素

在 Vera'a (Oceanic) 的语料库中检查了用于表达第三人称对象的代词和零照应之间的选择。虽然主要由代词表达，但发现主体允许零形式与具有低照应距离的所指对象。在这种情况下，发现零是首选的语言谓词子集，该子集采用历史上保持主题一致的特定时态-方面-情绪-极性（TAMP）标记。对代词的强烈偏好与相邻 TAMP 形态的附着行为和一致性的初步性有关。活力和数量也与主题变化有关。从句组合的效果和连接词的使用与其他语言中相同选择的研究结果不一致。