Full Description
Parameters have lain at the core of linguistic research in the generative tradition for decades. The theoretical questions they have raised are deep and broad: this reference text investigates how contemporary linguistics has best tried to answer them.
This book looks at how parameters might be properly defined and what their locus might be :lexical information, functional heads, the computational system, the phonological branch of the grammar. What kind of data forms trigger acquisition of a parameter? Are parameters necessary or can we study languages without making reference to them?
The questions looked at are not just theoretical: how can a theory of parameters be used to help understand second language acquisition, and what contributions can it make to the study of language typology?
This is the right time to gather all this information, dispersed in many different kinds of publications by single authors and groups, into one comprehensive volume.
Contents
Part I. Prolegomena
1. Parameters in Linguistic Theory: What, Where and How, Antonio Fábregas (University of Tromsø, Norway), Jaume Mateu (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain) and Michael Putnam (Penn State University, USA)
Part II. Main Morphosyntactic Parameters
2. Morphological Parameters, Antonio Fábregas (University of Tromsø, Norway)
3. Case. Ergative Languages, Michelle Sheehan (University of Cambridge, UK)
4. Head Directionality, Hubert Haider (University of Salzburg, Austria)
5. Parameters and Argument Structure I: Motion Predicates and Resultatives, Víctor Acedo-Matellán (University of Minho, Portugal) and Jaume Mateu (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain)
6. Parameters and Argument Structure II: Causatives and Applicatives, María Cristina Cuervo (University of Toronto, Canada)
7. The Functional Structure of the Clause: Main Issues, Martina Wiltschko (University of British Columbia, Canada)
8. Extended Projections of V: Aspect, Jonathan E. MacDonald (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
9. Null Subjects, Roberta D'Alessandro (Leiden University, The Netherlands)
10. Head Movement in the Clausal Domain, Ángel J. Gallego (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain) and Juan Uriagereka (University of Maryland, USA)
11. Wh-movement, Željko Boškovic (University of Connecticut, USA)
12. Topic and Focus, Jordi Fortuny (University of Barcelona, Spain)
13. The Functional Structure of N, Asya Pereltsvaig (Stanford University, USA)
Part III. Parameters Beyond Morphosyntax
14. Parameters in Phonological Analysis: Stress, Marc van Oostendorp (Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, The Netherlands)
15. Parameters in Language Acquisition and Language Contact, Nina Hyams (University of California-Los Angeles, USA), Victoria Mateu (University of California-Los Angeles, USA), Robyn Ortfitelli (University of Sheffield, UK), Michael Putnam (Penn State University, USA), Jason Rothman (University of Reading, UK) and Liliana Sánchez (Rutgers University, USA)
Index
