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Article published In: Evolutionary Linguistic Theory
Vol. 1:1 (2019) ► pp.24–56

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Parameters and the design of the Language Faculty

Northern Italian partial null subjects

 | University of Firenze
Published online: 24 April 2019
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https://doi.org/10.1075/elt.00003.man
Abstract
Following Berwick, R. & Chomsky, N. (2011). The biolinguistic program: the current state of its evolution and development. In A. M. Di Sciullo & C. Boeckx (Eds.), The biolinguistic enterprise, 19–41. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, parameters are degrees of freedom open at the externalization (EXT) of syntactico-semantic structures (SEM) by sensorimotor systems (PHON) (Section 1). Within this framework, in Section 2 I focus on a case study concerning Northern Italian subject clitics, also raising the well-known question how to reconcile observable microvariation with the desideratum of a reduced number of (macro)parameters. Sections 3 reviews recent relevant models of parameterization, the Rethinking Comparative Syntax model (ReCoS, Biberauer, T., Holmberg, A., Roberts, I., & Sheehan, M. (2014). Complexity in comparative syntax: the view from modern parametric theory. In F. Newmeyer & L. Preston (Eds.), Measuring Linguistic Complexity, 103–127. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and the Parameters & Schemata model ( (2005). A Minimalist Program for Parametric Linguistics? In H. Broekhuis, N. Corver, R. Huybregts, U. Kleinhenz & J. Koster (Eds.), Organizing Grammar, 407–14. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2017). Principles, Parameters, and Schemata. A radically underspecified UG. Linguistic Analysis, 411, 3–4.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Sections 4–5 return to the case study, taking the reductionist view that parameters may be just categorial cuts, such as the 1/2P vs 3P split, interacting with externalization and other general principles of grammar.
Article outline
  • 1.From the foundational work of the 80s to evolutionary linguistics
  • 2.A case study: Partial null subject in Northern Italian varieties
  • 3.Some recent models: The ReCoS project, Longobardi’s Schemata
  • 4.Manzini and Savoia’s account of Northern Italian partial null subjects
  • 5.Microvariation and macrocategories
    • 5.1Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (59)
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