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Optimal Parameters

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Book cover Logical Aspects of Computational Linguistics (LACL 1997)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1582))

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Abstract

1. Parameters and Minimalism Generative grammar has been concerned with two central questions from its outset: (i) how to characterize the linguistic knowledge of a speaker (descriptive adequacy) and (ii) explain how language is learned (explanatory adequacy). In the current stage of the framework (the Principles & Parameters approach as for example in Chomsky 1995), the answers are based on the hypothesis that UG is rich, constraining, so that acquisition reduces to narrowly defined parametric choices and the linguist must determine how the correct values can be established by experience. Variation among languages is described in terms of tightly knitted parameters, with a minor change in one setting potentially having multiple effects on the surface.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

    Denis Bouchard

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  1. Denis Bouchard
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Université Pierre Mendès France (Grenoble 2), 1251 avenue Centrale, BP 47, F-38040, Grenoble Cedex, France

    Alain Lecomte

  2. LORIA (Nancy), 615 rue de Jardin Botanique, BP 101, F-54602, Villers lès Nancy Cedex, France

    François Lamarche  & Guy Perrier  & 

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Bouchard, D. (1999). Optimal Parameters. In: Lecomte, A., Lamarche, F., Perrier, G. (eds) Logical Aspects of Computational Linguistics. LACL 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 1582. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48975-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48975-4_2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65751-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48975-7

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