Principles and parameters refers to a popular framework in generative linguistics. Principles and parameters was largely formulated by the linguists Noam Chomsky and Howard Lasnik, though it was the culmination of the research of many linguists. Today, many linguists have adopted this framework, and it is considered the dominant form of mainstream linguistics. Generative linguistics is a school of thought within linguistics that makes use of the concept of a generative grammar. ... Noam Chomsky; photo credit: John Soares Avram Noam Chomsky (b. ... Howard Lasnik is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Maryland. ...

The Framework

The central idea of principles and parameters is that a person's syntactic knowledge can be modelled with two formal mechanisms: In linguistics, syntax is the study of the rules, or patterned relations, that govern the way the words in a sentence come together. ... Formal - relating to form. ...

• A finite set of fundamental principles that are common to all languages; e.g., that a sentence must always have a subject, even if it is not overtly pronounced.
• A finite set of parameters that determine syntactic variability amongst languages; e.g., a binary parameter that determines whether or not the subject of a sentence must be overtly pronounced (this example is sometimes referred to as the Pro-drop parameter).

Within this framework, the goal of linguistics is to identify all of the principles and parameters that are universal to human language. As such, any attempt to explain the syntax of a particular language using a principle or parameter is cross-examined with the evidence available in other languages. This leads to continual refinement of the theoretical machinery of generative linguistics in an attempt to account for as much syntactic variation in human language as possible. The subject of a sentence is one of the two main parts of a sentence, the other being the predicate. ... A null subject language, in linguistic typology, is a language whose grammar permits the omission of an explicit subject. ...

Language acquisition

According to this framework, principles and parameters are part of a genetically innate Universal Grammar (UG) which all humans posess, barring any genetic disorders. As such, principles and parameters do not need to be learned by exposure to language. Rather, exposure to language merely triggers the parameters to adopt the correct setting. Universal grammar is a theory of linguistics postulating principles of grammar shared by all languages, thought to be innate to humans. ...

Criticism

Criticism of principles and parameters has most often been due to its stance on language acquisition. Although the framework is accepted by most mainstream linguists, it is very controversial amongst psychologists, cognitive scientists, and neuroscientists due to the strong nativism it espouses in relation to language acquisition. For example, the developmental psychologist Michael Tomasello has argued that there is no evidence of of innate linguistic knowledge in the early utterances of children. Psychology (Gk: psyche, soul or mind + logos, speech) is an academic and applied field involving the study of the mind, brain, and behavior, both human and nonhuman. ... Rendering of human brain based on MRI data Cognitive science is usually defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence (e. ... Neuroscience is a field of study that deals with the structure, function, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, and pathology of the nervous system, consisting of the myriad nerve pathways running throughout the body. ... In the field of psychology, nativism is the view that certain skills or abilities are native or hard wired into the brain at birth. ... Michael Tomasello, who is the co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutional Anthropology in Leipzig, is a cognitive psychologist. ...

Another source of criticism is the binary nature of parameters in the framework. For example, the linguist Larry Trask argues that the ergative case system of the Basque language is not a simple binary parameter, and that different languages can have different levels of ergativity.^[1] Robert Lawrence Larry Trask (November 10, 1944 - March 27, 2004) was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex and an authority on Basque language and historical linguistics. ... In ergative-absolutive languages, the ergative case identifies the subject of a transitive verb. ... Basque (in Basque: Euskara) is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain and the adjoining region of South-Western France. ...

Minimalist program

Main article: Minimalist program

The influence of principles and parameters is most apparent in the works of linguists who subscribe to the Minimalist Program, Noam Chomsky's most recent contribution to linguistics. This program of research utilizes conceptions of economy to enhance the search for universal principles and parameters. Linguists in this program assume that humans use as economic a system as possible in their innate syntactic knowledge. Transformational grammar is a broad term describing grammars (almost exclusively those of natural languages) which have been developed in a Chomskyan tradition. ...

Examples

Examples of theorized principles are:

• Structure preservation principle
• Trace erasure principle
• Projection principle

Examples of theorized parameters are: The Projection Principle is a stipulation proposed by Noam Chomsky as part of the Phrase Structure Component of Generative-Transformational Grammar. ...

• Ergative case parameter
• Head directionality parameter
• Nominal mapping parameter
• Null subject parameter
• Polysynthesis parameter
• Pro-drop parameter
• Serial verb parameter
• Subject placement parameter
• Subject side parameter
• Topic prominent parameter
• Verb attraction parameter

The Head directionality parameter is a proposed parameter that provides a choice between: Heads follow phrases in forming larger phrases (head final) and Heads precede phrases in forming larger phrases (head initial). ... A null subject language, in linguistic typology, is a language whose grammar permits the omission of an explicit subject. ... The Subject side parameter, sometimes referred to as the Specifier head parameter is a proposed parameter that provides a choice between: Subjects come before heads (subject first) and Subjects come after heads (subject last). ...

See also

• Government and binding
• Poverty of the stimulus
• Tabula rasa

This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The poverty of the stimulus (POTS) argument is an argument in favour of linguistic nativism, which is the claim that humans are born with a specific adaptation for language that both funds and limits their competence to acquire specific types of natural languages over the course of their cognitive development... Tabula rasa (Latin: scraped tablet, though often translated blank slate) is the notion that individual human beings are born blank (with no built-in mental content), and that their identity is defined entirely by their experiences and sensory perceptions of the outside world. ...

References

• Baker, M. (2001). The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar. Basic Bks.
• Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on Government and Binding. Mouton de Gruyter.
• Chomsky, N. and Lasnik, H. (1993) Principles and Parameters Theory, in Syntax: An International Handbook of Contemporary Research, Berlin: de Gruyte.
• Chomsky, N. (1995) The Minimalist Program (Current Studies in Linguistics). MIT Press.
• Lightfoot, D. (1982). The Language Lottery: Towards a Biology of Grammars. MIT Press.

External links

• Why Chomskean Linguistics is Mentalistic