When
Place: COMM 31
Who: Prof Paola Crisma from the Universita di Trieste and Prof. Giuseppe Longobardi from the University of York
Abstract: We propose a minimalist approach to parameter theory that gives up the idea that parameters are a predefined list at the initial state of the mind; this leaves one with the hypothesis that parameters are structures progressively added to the mind, under restricted conditions (schemata), to accommodate the Primary Linguistic Data. As a consequence, an inherent asymmetry is predicted between the two values of a parameter: absence vs presence of an added structure. Using a realistic dataset of 94 parameters, we test this prediction: we demonstrate that virtually all parameters display such asymmetry, in two distinct formats. Then, we explore the predictions of these minimalist assumptions in diachrony: we sketch a preliminary theory of parameter change, and show that the asymmetry between the two values is confirmed by evidence from parameter resetting in the history of some language families. This brings to lights the limits of narrow-focused approaches to syntactic history.