How to Set Parameters: Arguments From Language Change (A Bradford Book) - Softcover

Lightfoot, David W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262620901 ISBN 13: 9780262620901

Verlag: MIT Press, 1993

Über diesen Titel

Reseña del editor

Over the past decade, generative grammarians have viewed language acquisition as a process of fixing option points or parameters defined in Universal Grammar. Here David Lightfoot addresses the crucial question of what it takes to set a parameter - of what kind of experience is needed to trigger the emergence of a natural kind of grammar. Lightfoot asserts that parameter setting is not sensitive to embedded material, and that it is triggered only by robust elements that are structurally simple. He observes that morphological properties play a significant role in setting parameters which have widespread syntactic effects. Using evidence from data on diachronic changes and from current work in syntactic theory, Lightfoot makes precise claims about the triggering experience that can explain a number of historical puzzles. He argues that the changes could have taken place in the way they did only if language acquisition proceeds on the basis of simple, unembedded experiences.

Biografía del autor

David Lightfoot is Professor and Chairman of the Linguistics Department at the University of Maryland.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: MIT Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0262620901
• ISBN 13: 9780262620901
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Sprache: Englisch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 229