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The Null Subject Parameter pp 1–44Cite as

The Null Subject Parameter and Parametric Theory

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Part of the book series: Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory ((SNLT,volume 15))

Abstract

The central challenge for modern linguistic theory is to develop a model of Universal Grammar that is, on the one hand, general enough to capture the universal features of natural language, and on the other, flexible enough to account for the variation among languages that is in fact observed. Moreover, insofar as Universal Grammar (UG) is assumed to be part of the innate human endowment, the problem of linguistic variation becomes crucially related to the logical problem of how linguistic variation can be mastered by the language learner. One conceptualization of this problem that we believe is on the right track is the parametric theory of linguistic variation, which is designed to provide both a theory of linguistic typology as well as an answer to the logical problem of language acquisition. In fact it is probably fair to say that the recent proliferation of theoretically informed generativist studies of languages other than English is a direct result of the conceptualization of the role of parameters in syntactic theory. The articles in this collection exemplify the potential of this sort of research with respect to a rather well-defined set of phenomena — centering around the null subject phenomenon — within the paradigm of research known as Government-Binding theory (Chomsky (1981, 1982)).

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Authors
  1. Osvaldo Jaeggli
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  2. Kenneth J. Safir
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Linguistics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-1693, USA

    Osvaldo A. Jaeggli

  2. Program in Linguistics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA

    Kenneth J. Safir

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© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Jaeggli, O., Safir, K.J. (1989). The Null Subject Parameter and Parametric Theory. In: Jaeggli, O.A., Safir, K.J. (eds) The Null Subject Parameter. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2540-3_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2540-3_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-55608-087-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-2540-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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