Language Acquisition and the Theory of ParametersThis book is perhaps the most stunning available demonstration of the explanatory power of the parametric approach to linguistic theory. It is akin, not to a deductive proof, but to the discovery of a footprint in a far-off place which leaves an archeologist elated. The book is full of intricate reasoning, but the stunning aspect is that the reasoning moves between not only complex syntax and diverse languages, but it makes predictions about what two-year-old children will assume about the jumble of linguistic input that confronts them. Those predictions, Hyams shows, are supported by a discriminating analysis of acquisition data in English and Italian. Let us examine the linguistic context for a moment before we discuss her theory. The ultimate issue in linguistic theory is the explanation of how a child can acquire any human language. To capture this fact we must posit an innate mechanism which meets two opposite constraints: it must be broad enough to account for the diversity of human language, and narrow enough so that the child does not make irrelevant hypotheses about his own language, particularly ones from which there is no recovery. That is, a child must not posit a grammar which permits all of the sentences of a language as well as other sentences which are not in the language. In a word, the child must not create a language in which one cannot make adult discriminations between grammatical and ungrammatical. |
Contents
THE NULL SUBJECT PHENOMENON | 26 |
THE AGPRO PARAMETER IN EARLY | 63 |
SOME COMPARATIVE DATA | 110 |
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0-marking 0-position acquisition data adult grammar adult language AG/PRO parameter analysis anaphors appear argue assigned assume auxiliary Avoid Pronoun Principle Bellugi Binding Conditions c-command Chapter child language Chomsky clitic constructions contractible control verbs copula discussion early English early grammar elements empty category English speaking children evidence example Extended Projection Principle fact Filter G₁ German gerunds Gianni governed grammar of English grammatical development hence hypothesis infinitivals inflection input data inversion Isomorphism Italian speaking children John Kathryn language acquisition lexical expletives lexical pronoun lexical subjects linguistic main verbs Maria markedness modals morphological Move INFL negative marker noted null subject option parameter setting parameters of UG particular phonologically postverbal subjects predictions preverbal pro-drop languages pro-drop parameter pronominal properties proposed raising verbs reference respect restructuring Roeper Rule S-structure semantic semi-auxiliaries sentences containing specified structure subject position subjectless sentences syntactic syntactic categories syntax triggering utterances word order