Principles & parameters theory Chomskyan revolution

1. Principles & parameters theory Chomskyan revolution

2. Principles & parameters theory • A historical review of UG • UG & concepts of P & P theory • Definition of P & P theory • Kager’sdefinition of P & P theory(2004) • Principles(Projection – Structure Dependency– ) • Parameters(Head– The Pro – drop–word order ) • References

3. A historical review of UG • 50-60s • Standard theory • Extended Standard Theory • Rule-based • 80s • Government and Binding Theory • Principle and Parameter Theory (PPT) • Principle-guided • 90s • Minimalism Program • Economy-driven

4. UG & concepts of P & P theory • “The system of principle, Conditions and rules that are properties of all human languages …………. the essence of human language”. (Chomsky, 1976) • UG is a set of universal principles of language, some of which are rigidly fixed, some of which are parametrized. (Haegeman, 2008) • language knowledge consists of principles universal to all languages and parameters that vary from one language to another.

5. UG & concepts of P & P theory • UG is a theory of knowledge, not of behavior, its concern is with the internal structure of human mind. • UG theory holds that the speaker knows a set of: principles that apply to all languages, and parameters that vary within clearly defined limits from one language to another. • A set of principles and parameters that constrain all human languages.

6. UG & concepts of P & P theory • UG contains a set of absolute universals, notions, and principles which don’t vary from one language to the next. • There are languagespecific properties which aren’t fully determined by UG but which vary cross-linguistically .

7. Principles and parameters is a framework within generative linguistics in which the syntax of a natural language is described in accordance with general principles and specific parametersthat for particular languages are either turned onor off . For example, the distinction between whether a language is head-initial or head-final is regarded as a parameter which is either on or off for particular languages (i.e. English is head-initial, whereas Japanese is head-final ). Principles and parameters was largely formulated by the linguists Noam Chomsky and Howard Lasnik.

8. Kager’sdefinition of P & P theory(2004) P & P theory has as its central claim that grammars of individual languages are built on a central core of fixed universal properties(principles), +Plus+ a specification of a limited number of universal binary choices(parameters). • Binary choices as: left or right head

9. Principle: • Highly abstract properties of grammar which apply to all languages in general, and which underlies the grammatical rules of all specific languages.(Ellis, 1994) • Describe potentially universal properties of natural language grammars.(Radford, 2006) • Those aspects of syntactic structures which are invariant across languages. • A principle of UG is a statement that is true for all human languages. E.G. The principle of structure dependency

10. Parameter: • Refers to principles that vary in certain restricted ways from one language to another language.(Ellis, 1994) • The small set of alternatives for a particular phenomenon made available by UG. (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams 2003) • Dimensions of grammatical variation between different languages or different language varieties.(Radford, 2006) • Languages differ in the value of parameters.

11. Projection Principle Speakers of a language know: 1) What do words in language mean? 2) How can they be combined to make sentences? • It has always been recognized that there are restrictions on which words can occur in which constructions. • The theory integrates the syntactic description of the sentence with the properties of lexical items, which requires the syntax to accommodate the characteristic of each lexical item.

12. Examples for Projection Principle: • Some verbs are followed by object NP: So, they project that the verb must take an object: He prefers cold drink. but not, *He prefers. • Other verbs are not followed by NP; So, they project that the verb must not take an object: Peter fainted. Not: *Peter fainted the cat. • The entry of ‘want’ is something like: Want [verb](-NP / To–phrase) So, it project that the verb want must be followed by an infinitive or an object. Lexicalinformation is syntactically represented.

13. Structure Dependency Principle • Grammatical rules do not depend on the linear ordering of the words in the sentence, but on how these words are structured within constituents of specific types. • . Whenever elements of the sentence are moved to form passives, questions, or whatever, such movement takes account of the structural relationships of the sentence rather than the linear order of the words. • Asserts that knowledge of language relies on the structural relationship in the sentence rather than on the sequence of words

14. Example for Structure Dependency Principle • An example for structure dependency principle through the relationship of active and passive sentences in English: • Mybrotherwashedthe car. 1 2 3 4 • OnSaturday, mybrotherwashedthe car. 1 2 3 4 5 6 One possibility is that it is the word that occurs in a particular place in the sentence(in the above example the fourth word) that comes to the first to change an active sentence to a passive sentence. Hence, moving the 4th word of the second sentence makes a nonsense word.

15. Example for Structure Dependency Principle : The man who is tall isJohn.A complex subject+ tobe verb +complement. Is the man who is tall John? *Is the man who tall is John? • The rule doesn't make reference to a nonstructural unit, such as "the first verb". Thus, yes/no questions are formed by moving the main verb to the front of the sentence, not by moving the first verb in the sentence to the front.

16. The Head Parameter Head (of a phrase): The constituent fundamental to the phrase, from which the phrase derives its name. (e.g. a noun phrase is “headed” by a noun). Each phrase (NP, VP, etc) is the projection of the head. NP is headed by N VP is headed by V, etc. Complement: The other constituents contained in the phrase that complete its meaning.

17. The Head Parameter • It specifies the order of certain elements in a language. The head of the phrase can occur on the left of the complements or on their right. • One distinctive claim is that the essential element is each phrase is its head. NP: Education for life Showed her the way Inthe car • An important way in which language very concerns where the head occurs in relationship to other elements of the phrase, called complements.

18. Human beings know that phrases can be either head-first or head-last. • an English speaker has learnt that English is head-first; a speaker of Japanese that Japanese is head-last and soon. • The variation between languages can now be expressed in terms of heads occur first or last in the phrase.

19. The pro-drop parameter (The null subject parameter) • Pro – drop languages have declarative sentences without apparent subjects as in the Italian. Sonodi Torino. (am from Turin) I am from Turin. • The Pro-drop parameter sometimes called the null subject parameter’ determines whether the subject of the clause can be suppressed. • The concerns whether a language has sentences without apparent subjects, known as null – subject or subject less sentences I am the walrus. In Italian: Sonoiltricheco. (am the walrus)

20. Example forPro – drop parameter • A pro-drop language such as Italian can have finite null – subject declarative sentence; a non – pro-drop language such as English cannot. •  Principles and parameters theory treats such sentences as having an empty category in subject position, rather than having no subject at all, the basic assumption is that all sentence have subjects.

21. Example forPro – drop parameter • English needs overt subject: • *Go to the movies tonight. (I) • Italian and Spanish do not: • Vado al cinema stasera. (Italian) • Voy al cine estanoche. (Spanish)‘(I) go to the movies tonight. • Some languages with Null-subject sentences (Italian, Persian, Spanish) also permit verb-subject order, English does not. • بنویسم من

22. word order parameter: • The different word order of English & Japanese word order are directly correlated with the word order parameter. • The binary choice VOor OVin English & Japanese word order. JohngaMaryobutta. (S O V) hit John hit Mary. (S V O) • The child learning Japanese will have to fix the parameter for the OV setting. • English has the setting where objectfollows the verb. • Languages differ in the settings of parameters.

23. References • Haegeman, L. (2008). Government & Binding Theory. • Kager,R. (2004). Optimality Theory. • Cook, V.J. & Newton, M. (1997). Chomsky’s Universal Grammar An Introduction(2nd ed.). • Gass, S.M. & Selinker, L. (2008). Second Language Acquisition An Introductory Course(3rd ed.) • Radford, A., Atkinson, M., Britain, D., Clahsen, & H., Spencer, A. (2008). Linguistics An Introduction(2nd ed.). • Radford, A. (2006). English Syntax An Introduction. • Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2003). An Introduction Language(7th ed.). • Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition.

24. Thanks for your attention