27.4380, Review: Discipline of Ling; General Ling; Lang Acq; Typology: Putnam, Mateu, Fábregas (2015)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-27-4380. Fri Oct 28 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.4380, Review: Discipline of Ling; General Ling; Lang Acq; Typology: Putnam, Mateu, Fábregas (2015)

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Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2016 11:21:53
From: Dennis Ott [dennis.ott at post.harvard.edu]
Subject: Contemporary Linguistic Parameters

 
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/26/26-5189.html

EDITOR: Antonio  Fábregas
EDITOR: Jaume  Mateu
EDITOR: Michael T. Putnam
TITLE: Contemporary Linguistic Parameters
SERIES TITLE: Contemporary Studies in Linguistics
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
YEAR: 2015

REVIEWER: Dennis Ott, University of Ottawa

Reviews Editor: Robert A. Cote

SUMMARY

This 15 chapter volume entitled “Contemporary Linguistic Parameters” and
edited by Antonio Fábregas, Jaume Mateu, and Michael T. Putnam presents a
cross-section of research on linguistic variation and attempts at modeling
this variation in terms of parameters, a central notion of linguistic theory
since the emergence of the Principles & Parameters program kick-started by
Chomsky’s Pisa lectures (published as Chomsky 1981).

Part I of the book, titled “Prolegomena”, constitutes solely of Chapter 1,
“’Parameters’ in linguistic theory”, by Fábregas, Mateu, and Putnam, who set
out to elucidate the “what, where, and how” of parameters. The chapter
provides a historical survey of the development of the notion in response to
concerns of explanatory adequacy, using Rizzi’s null-subject parameter as an
example. In addition to questions concerning the quantity of parameters, the
values they can take and their micro vs. macro character, the chapter reviews
different conceptions of parameters as syntactic, lexical, or originating in
the mappings to the sound or meaning interface, as well as the nanosyntactic
view of parameters as variation in exponence.

Chapters 2-13 make up Part II, “Main morphosyntactic parameters”.

Chapter 2, “Morphological parameters”, by Antonio Fábregas, departs from the
question “Do morphological parameters exist?” and starts out with an
illustrative review of variation in the realm of morphology. Addressing the
question of how such sublexical variation could be understood formally,
Fábregas notes that “variation in the lexical repertoire … [does] not seem to
have consequences for other aspects of grammar”, making it “difficult to
reduce [such] variation … to a parameter of any kind” (30). The chapter goes
on to review a number of parameters that have been proposed, such as Julien’s
approach to affix positioning, Hyam’s stem parameter, Baker’s polysynthesis
parameter, and Raposo’s inflection parameter. The chapter ends on a discussion
of the locus of morphological parameters as pertaining to either the lexicon
or the morphophonological component.

Chapter 3, “Case. Ergative languages”, by Michelle Sheehan, offers a an
in-depth survey of variation with regard to case systems. After introducing
the fundamentals of accusative vs. ergative alignment, Sheehan reviews
variable systems, where alignment is sensitive to various properties such as
tense/aspect or person features, and split ergativity in a variety of
languages exhibiting differential alignment in morphology vs. syntax or in
case vs. agreement systems. The remainder of the chapter provides a
comprehensive overview of theoretical approaches to ergativity. The proposals
reviewed include, among others, parametrization in thematic-role assignment
and the order of Merge and Agree, and parameters based on the analysis of
ergative case as either dependent case or the inherent case of thematic
‘causers’. Sheehan concludes with a brief summary of her own proposal for a
hierarchy of relevant parameters yielding different alignment systems.

Chapter 4, “Head directionality”, by Hubert Haider, discusses theoretical
approaches to variable head-dependent ordering, focusing mostly on
English-type OV vs. German-type VO order. After introducing some surface
manifestations of head directionality, Haider reviews a number of syntactic
properties that (he argues) correlate with different settings of the
head-directionality parameter across the Germanic languages, among which
various facts concerning adverb and auxiliary placement, stranded particles,
the in situ positioning of certain wh-phrases, an obligatory ‘EPP’ effect, and
that-trace effects. Haider then summarizes his own proposal, according to
which projection lines are universally right-branching but the direction of
licensing of dependents is parametrized as leftward/rightward (an appendix
compares the empirical predictions of the approach to those of Kayne’s
LCA-based proposal for a universal base), and Slavic is presented as a
possible example of a language type with variable licensing directionality.
The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of head directionality in
morphological structure.

Chapter 5, “Parameters and argument structure I”, by Víctor Acedo-Matellán and
Jaume Mateu, is the first of two chapters focusing on variation in
argument-structure realization, focusing on motion predicates and
resultatives. The chapter starts out with a summary of the historical
development of the notion of argument structure in syntactic theory, from
Chomsky’s ASPECTS and the subsequent introduction of thematic roles
(culminating in Baker’s UTAH) to Hale and Keyser’s influential proposals and
their descendants, as well as more recent ‘constructionist’ models that the
distinction between lexical and sentential syntax, and how variation can be
captured in these approaches. The authors then provide a detailed discussion
of the cross-linguistic realization of directed-motion constructions
(including a discussion of Snyder’s compounding parameter) and constructions
involving resultative predicates. The chapter concludes with a brief
discussion of diachronic developments in these two domains.

Chapter 6, “Parameters and argument structure II”, by María Cristina Cuervo,
continues the theme of argument structure, focusing on applicative and
causative constructions. The chapter dives straight into the facts concerning
variation in the meaning and morphosyntax of the building blocks of
applicative constructions and, subsequently, morphosyntactic variability in
the expression of causatives. A final section succinctly summarizes the
dimensions of variation uncovered in the preceding discussion and discusses
how the variation could be captured on an approach suggested in recent work of
Rizzi’s, according to which the locus of parameters is either the
combinatorial syntactic system itself or the component that ‘spells out’
morphosyntactic features. No clear conclusion emerges, and Cuervo surmises
that “[s]ome of the attested variation seems to escape parametric accounts”
(144).

Chapter 7, “The functional structure of the clause”, by Martina Wiltschko,
tackles variation in the domain of tense, aspect, and mood (TAM). Wiltschko
reviews briefly the historical development of each notion in syntactic theory,
including the rationale for treating tense as a separate functional element
from the verb and the (non-universal) licensing function of tense morphology,
and proposals that a functional head encoding aspect licenses grammatical
objects. Wiltschko then discusses three different frameworks within which
specific proposals have been advanced to capture variation in TAM:
cross-linguistic formal semantics (which bases cross-linguistic comparisons on
meaning rather than structural composition), cartography (which assumes that
morphosyntactic features are realized by a complex cascade of functional
heads), and Wiltschko’s own Universal Spine Hypothesis (which assumes that
languages differ in how they lexically realize a universal set of ordered
functional domains). Against this backdrop, the chapter closes with a detailed
comparison of the TAM systems of Standard and Austrian German.

The discussion of variation in the verbal domain continues in Chapter 8,
“Extended projections of V: Inner Aspect”, by Jonathan E. MacDonald. MacDonald
outlines how languages differ in how the (a)telicity of verb phrases is
determined, e.g. in whether or not telicity is influenced by the direct object
and other “telicity-inducing elements” (such as aspectual prefixes in Slavic,
verb-verb compounds in Chinese and specialized morphemes in languages such as
Tagalog and Malagasy, where verbs such as kill do not generate an entailment
of completion in the absence of such devices), and the classification of
predicates into different aspectual classes, such as stative vs. eventive and
further subdivisions thereof. MacDonald notes that beyond the basic
telic/atelic distinction, it remains unclear to what extent these distinctions
are universal. The chapter then discusses the interaction of telicity with
outer aspect (viewpoint), tense, and mood, before concluding that the
variation reviewed throughout the chapter “can be relegated to the
morphophonological component” (197), although details are left open.

Chapter 9, “Null subjects”, by Roberta D’Alessandro, presents a comprehensive
discussion of the null-subject property that permits a variety of languages to
leave subjects superficially unexpressed. D’Alessandro first delineates the
empirical landscape by illustrating the different types of null-subject
languages (NSLs), with “radical NSLs”, which freely permit omission of
subjects and objects, on one end of the spectrum and “expletive NSLs”, which
require overt expression of referential but not expletive subjects, on the
other; canonical and partial NSLs, which generally or partially permit
non-overt referential subjects, fall in between. The remainder of the chapter
is devoted to a theoretical discussion of the null-subject parameter,
departing from Rizzi’s classical “macro” formulation, which ties the licensing
of null subjects to rich (pronominal) INFL and postulates a number of
syntactic correlates. Having outlined a number of empirical problems for this
proposal and different responses to these complications, D’Alessandro homes in
on the status of pro, presenting various proposals as to how it is licensed in
the different types of NSLs, and how these differences could be captured in
terms of ‘micro parameters’.

Chapter 10, by Ángel J. Gallego and Juan Uriagereka, discusses “Head movement
in the clausal domain”. The chapter starts out with a succinct summary of the
ideas that gave rise to the now-standard cascade of functional heads
permitting variable verb placement via head raising. Gallego and Uriagereka
then survey the theoretical developments in the conception of head movement,
from the classical, GB-era implementation as successive head adjunction to
Chomsky’s more recent suggestion that head movement is a post-syntactic,
phonological operation, to various approaches attempting to subsume the
relevant phenomena under (remnant-)XP-movement or Agree. This theoretical
discussion is followed by a detailed discussion of variation in head movement:
V-to-T movement and its relation to richness of INFL, and T-to-C accounting
for full or residual verb-second effects, including a brief discussion of a
possible connection between verb movement to C and illocutionary force. As
Gallego and Uriagereka note, only V-to-T can be plausibly stated as a
morphological parameter whereas T-to-C cannot, “which probably indicates that
the latter is not a parameter in itself” (248).

Chapter 11, “Wh-movement”, by Željko Bošković, discusses cross-linguistic
variation in the placement of wh-phrases in questions. Bošković organizes the
discussion according to language types, starting with French-type ‘optional’
wh-in situ before moving on to genuine wh-in situ of the Japanese type,
followed by an extensive discussion of the intricacies of variation found in
multiple-fronting languages, with regard to superiority and other properties.
The chapter then moves on to a discussion of variation in wh-islands,
departing from Rizzi’s classical comparative discussion of English and
Italian. Bošković reviews a number of proposals to capture the robustness of
these effects in some languages vis-à-vis the selective permissiveness found
in others. After a brief discussion of successive-cyclic wh-movement, Bošković
proposes a technical implementation of the general wh-movement typology, based
on the idea that movement is driven by uninterpretable features (uFs) of
moving XPs. Multiple-fronting languages then have wh-phrases bearing uFs,
whereas wh-phrases in in situ languages bear interpretable features, voiding
the need for movement; wh-phrases in single-fronting languages optionally bear
uFs.

Chapter 12, “Topic and focus”, by Jordi Fortuny, turns to the level of
information structure, specifically the cross-linguistic realization of
topic-comment and focus-background articulation. After a rough definition of
the basic notions, the chapter shows that their relation to syntactic
structure is quite variable across languages. Fortuny first discusses the
dichotomy between topic-prominent and subject-prominent languages, but rejects
a corresponding macro parameter on grounds of learnability, given certain
assumptions about minimal learnability conditions: parameters must be atomic
(they cannot regulate clusters of properties), and their setting must be
revealed by surface properties of utterances. Instead, Fortuny argues for a
bootstrapping approach based on morphological evidence. In the second half of
the chapter, Fortuny develops a parametric system for focus-marking that
yields a three-partite division of languages into boundary (focus-marking via
prosodic phrasing), edge (focus-marking by movement to the periphery), and
particle (focus-marking via a special morpheme). In conclusion, Fortuny argues
that variation in topic and focus realization is necessarily syntactic and
“cannot be attributed to the externalization systems of language” (298).

Chapter 13, by Asya Pereltsvaig, explores “The functional structure of N”,
where ‘N’ is short for the nominal domain. Pereltsvaig begins by outlining the
main dimensions of variation: presence or absence of functional categories
such as articles and classifiers; order of functional elements and adjuncts
relative to the head noun; realization of morphosyntactic features such as
case and definiteness; and the expression of argument structure of nouns. In
approaching these issues theoretically, Pereltsvaig contrasts two approaches:
a macro-parametric ‘What You See Is What You Get’ (WYSIWYG) approach, which
assumes that the functional constitution of nominals varies
cross-linguistically, and a micro-parametric Universal Structure approach,
which assumes that functional structure in the DP is essentially invariant,
either by being universally projected with potentially null exponents (the
strong version) or by making the same inventory of functional elements
universally available (the weak version). Pereltsvaig argues that two chief
representatives of the former view (Chierchia’s nominal-mapping parameter and
Bošković’s parametrized-DP hypothesis) face a variety of problems, leading her
to a more favorable though ultimately inconclusive discussion of the Universal
Structure approach.

Two contributions grouped together as Part III, “Parameters beyond
morphosyntax”, conclude the volume.

Chapter 14, “Parameters in phonological analysis: Stress”, by Marc van
Oostendorp, identifies stress as an ideal testing ground for models of
variation, given that “the parametric space seems relatively simple”, so that
“a small number of parameters … in interaction can describe it virtually
completely” (335). An answer to the question of how variation in stress
systems is best captured theoretically -- and, as van Oostendorp notes in the
conclusion, WHY stress systems should exist in the first place -- remains
elusive, however, as the ensuing discussion makes clear. Van Oostendorp first
introduces a number of proposals due Hayes and others couched in terms of
binary parameters that generate the stress systems found in the languages of
the world, offering choices concerning left-/right-headedness of feet,
(in)sensitivity to syllable weight, left-/right-alignment of stress, etc.
After discussing different implementations of this idea and subsequent
refinements, van Oostendorp turns to the now-dominant paradigm of Optimality
Theory. He considers the approach “an alternative to Principles and Parameters
Theory” (343), given that it dispenses with parametrized choices in favor of
variable constraint rankings. In conclusion, van Oostendorp notes that a
framework that naturally expresses the various generalizations about stress
placement is still outstanding.

Chapter 15, jointly written by Nina Hyams, Victoria Mateu, Robyn Orfitelli,
Michael Putnam, Jason Rothman and Liliana Sánchez, surveys “Parameters in
language acquisition and language contact”. The empirical focus of the chapter
is on null subjects and objects, which are discussed with regard to L1
acquisition, L2 acquisition, and contact and heritage grammars. Adopting the
view that the parameters model “makes precise the claim that child grammars
are not fundamentally different from adult grammars” (354), “provides a way to
address the poverty-of-the-stimulus problem in adult L2” (sic), and can shed
light on “grammatical outcomes (i) developing from sustained contact with
another variety … and/or (ii) resulting from a lack of activation of an L1
grammar … later replaced by another L2” (367), the chapter discusses the
possible role of parameters in the acquisition/learning trajectory of each
type of learner with regard to argument omission.

EVALUATION

Handbook-type publications like the present one perform an important service
to the field in that they allow us to pause, take stock of what we’ve learned,
and make the central results and controversies accessible to researchers
regardless of specialization. Ideally, they also serve as sources of suitable
reading materials for advanced-undergraduate and graduate classes. This volume
is a particularly welcome addition to the ever-growing number of handbook
publications since it represents the first such systematic appraisal of the
state of the art in parametric theory. The editors have done an excellent job
at compiling an impressive volume representing the current understanding
against a generative backdrop.

The quality of the contributions is high without exception although the papers
do vary quite a bit in the general approach they take. In my personal view,
contributions to a volume of this kind are most useful when they assume as
neutral a perspective as possible and aim for a representative illustration of
the analytical approaches that have crystallized, leaving extended arguments
for or against particular views to other venues. Most of the contributions to
this volume take precisely this route, either by abstaining from judgments
altogether or presenting individual views as a clearly demarcated add-ons to
the general discussion. The contributions by Fábregas, Sheehan, D’Alessandro,
Gallego and Uriagereka, and van Oostendorp in particular struck me as
outstanding examples of accessible, comprehensive, and balanced surveys of the
lay of the land. The contributions by Haider, Bošković, and Pereltsvaig are
decidedly more explicit in their bias toward or against particular views,
resulting in a somewhat one-sided presentation. To be sure, these
contributions are valuable pieces of scholarship on their own terms, but in a
still-nascent field where hardly anything can be considered definitive, and
especially in the context of a handbook whose readership will likely be intent
on getting the lay of the land, I feel that a more balanced presentation would
have been preferable.

What can we take away from this volume? My impression, hardly surprising in
view of the current state of understanding in linguistic theory (as opposed to
description in technical terms), is that this volume shows, first and
foremost, that an actual theory of parameters and indeed their general format
is still a distant prospect; the contributions, while uniformly optimistic in
their outlook, hardly try to conceal this fact. Consequently, details of
variation in the surface data by far outweigh the discussion of parameters
with any predictive power in this volume, with a few notable exceptions such
as Rizzi’s (1982, 1986) seminal null-subject parameter. Proposals of this
kind, which make a genuine attempt at cutting through the complexity of
phenomenology rather than merely restating observations (e.g. in the guise of
arbitrary morphosyntactic features or otherwise), remain few and far between;
consequently, the empirical investigation of linguistic variation proceeds
with little theoretical guidance. The volume under review is highly
recommended as a sobering reminder of how much work still lies ahead.

A number of layout-related shortcomings should be reconsidered by the
publisher for future editions: endnotes rather than footnotes, a consolidated
bibliography rather than an individual reference section for each paper, and a
format of bibliography entries that hampers efficient retrieval by linearly
separating authors’ names and publication years, which will be perceived as
minor annoyances by many readers.

REFERENCES

Chomsky, N. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris.

Rizzi, L. 1982. Issues in Italian syntax. Dordrecht: Foris.

Rizzi, L. 1986. Null objects in Italian and the theory of pro. Linguistic
Inquiry 17(3), 501-557.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

I'm an assistant professor of syntax at the University of Ottawa, Canada. My
research interests include syntactic displacement, ellipsis, and the nature of
words.





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