How to set Parameters: Arguments from Language Change

TLDR

Generative grammarians view language acquisition as fixing parameters in Universal Grammar, and Lightfoot argues that language change requires simple, unembedded experiences. Lightfoot investigates what experience is needed to set a parameter and to trigger a natural kind of grammar. He claims parameter setting is triggered only by robust, structurally simple elements, not by embedded material, and uses diachronic data and syntactic theory to specify the triggering experience. He finds that morphological properties significantly influence parameter setting and have widespread syntactic effects, supporting the idea that language change depends on simple, unembedded experiences.

Abstract

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, 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.Along the way Lightfoot examines consequences of the loss of the rich Old English case system and of the breakdown of the verb classes and takes up particularly illuminating cases of obsolescent structures.David Lightfoot is Professor and Chairman of the Linguistics Department at the University of Maryland.