The Limits Of Syntactic Variation (linguistik Aktuell/linguistics Today)

Against the background of the past half century's typological and generative work on comparative syntax, this volume brings together 16 papers considering what we have learned and may still be able to learn about the nature and extent of syntactic variation. More specifically, it offers a multi-perspective critique of the Principles and Parameters approach to syntactic variation, evaluating the merits and shortcomings of the pre-Minimalist phase of this enterprise and considering and illustrating the possibilities opened up by recent empirical and theoretical advances. Contributions focus on four central topics: firstly, the question of the locus of variation, whether the attested variation may plausibly be understood in parametric terms and, if so, what form such parameters might take; secondly, the fate of one of the most prominent early parameters, the Null Subject Parameter; thirdly, the matter of parametric clusters more generally; and finally, acquisition issues. The Limits of Syntactic Variation......Page 2 Editorial page ......Page 3 Title page ......Page 4 LCC data ......Page 5 Table of contents......Page 6 Preface and Acknowledgements......Page 8 1. Introduction......Page 10 2. The non-randomness of syntactic variation......Page 11 3. Accounting for limits on syntactic variation......Page 13 4. The locus of parametric variation......Page 48 5. A classic parameter revisited: The Null Subject Parameter......Page 54 6. Parametric clustering......Page 63 7. The acquisition of parameters......Page 67 References......Page 71 Index......Page 418 The series Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today......Page 424 "Against the background of the past half century's typological and generative work on comparative syntax, this volume brings together 16 papers considering what we have learned and may still be able to learn about the nature and extent of syntactic variation. More specifically, it offers a multi-perspective critique of the Principles and Parameters approach to syntactic variation, evaluating the merits and shortcomings of the pre-Minimalist phase of this enterprise and considering and illustrating the possibilities opened up by recent empirical and theoretical advances."--BOOK JACKET

Against the background of the past half century's typological and generative work on comparative syntax, this volume brings together 16 papers considering what we have learned and may still be able to learn about the nature and extent of syntactic variation. More specifically, it offers a multi-perspective critique of the Principles and Parameters approach to syntactic variation, evaluating the merits and shortcomings of the pre-Minimalist phase of this enterprise and considering and illustrating the possibilities opened up by recent empirical and theoretical advances.