Conclusion

This chapter concludes the book and considers the implications and outlook for future research. The eleven hierarchies presented in the earlier chapters are presented together, and their similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses, are discussed. Then a ‘parametric profile’ for English, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese is given. This shows how macro-, meso-, and microdifferences emerge from the general approach, fulfilling one of the goals of the book discussed in the Introduction and Chapter 1. Various potential refinements of parameter hierarchies and their likely advantages are discussed. The chapter concludes by noting that the minimalist conception of parametric variation is fundamentally distinct from the earlier approach, above all in the possible role of domain-general cognitive constraints (third factors).

Wh-movement and negation

This chapter considers some of what is known about variation in wh-movement and negation, and the extent to which parameter hierarchies can be constructed to account for at least some of that variation. A good deal of the variation surveyed in this chapter follows from the formal options allowing these special indefinites to receive the interpretations they do. It begins with wh-parameters, in particular the very well-known parameter determining whether a language has overt wh-movement or not, as well as the parameters governing different kinds of multiple wh-movement. It then turns to negation. One interesting point which emerges is that parametric variation regarding some aspects of interrogatives and negation is very simple, and probably does not involve a hierarchy. In other areas, parameter hierarchies of the now familiar kind can be proposed.

Verb-movement

The chapter begins with a very brief excursus into Davidsonian event semantics, explaining the basic motivation for positing event variables, as well as ‘separation’ of θ‎-roles from predicates. It then develops the TP-Denotation Hypothesis, i.e. the idea that events are denoted through the Tense feature. This naturally leads to a tripartite typology of Tense vs No-Tense languages, and Weak-Tense vs Strong-Tense languages. Strong-Tense (Romance), Weak-Tense (mainly English), and No-Tense (Chinese) languages are illustrated. The chapter then turns to other examples of cross-linguistic variation in verb-movement: V-initial languages and Germanic verb-second, where a novel labelling-based proposal for certain core properties is developed. The proposals regarding the changes affecting the ‘inversion’ system through the history of English made by Biberauer & Roberts are then summarized. The chapter concludes with a parameter hierarchy for Tense.

Null subjects

After a brief historical sketch of work on null subjects, and a summary of Barbosa’s proposals concerning the relation between partial and radical null subjects, the chapter presents a typology of null arguments which links their properties directly to the D-system, suggesting a cross-linguistic link between the nature of the null-subject system and the nature of the ‘article system’ in a given language. After a brief consideration of the semantics of null pronouns and the role of the Person feature in licensing null arguments, a general account of ‘licensing pro’ is put forward, which relies on the twin ideas that pro contains a variable and that all variables must be bound at the C–I interface. Finally, there is an updated and refined parameter hierarchy for φ‎-parameters. The question of the relation of variation in these features to the C–I interface and the morphophonological interface is also taken up.

Introduction

This chapter sets the work in its general theoretical context, introducing the central ideas to be developed in the following chapters—parameter hierarchies, and parameters as emergent properties of the three factors of language design—and briefly illustrates the way in which the principles-and-parameters idea can be maintained in current minimalist syntax by showing how the Final-Over-Final Condition (FOFC), taken to be a universal ‘principle’, interacts with and constrains cross-linguistic word-order variation (parameters). Whilst this is a classic case of ‘principle’ and ‘parameter’ interaction, both the principle and the parameter must derive from more elementary notions. In this way, we move towards a minimalist approach to principles and parameters, and to morphosyntactic variation in general. The Introduction ends with a brief summary of the topics of the chapters to follow.

Case and alignment

Case parameters determine, directly or indirectly, many aspects of grammatical-function realization, change, and alignment. The classic example of a grammatical-function-changing operation is the passive, and this is the initial focus of this chapter. The chapter next looks at various kinds of ergative alignment, and then other grammatical-function-changing operations: causatives and ditransitives. For each construction-type—passives, ergatives, causatives, and ditransitives—a parameter hierarchy is proposed. Finally, the chapter considers the question of Case macroparameters and assesses the recent proposals that languages may altogether lack abstract Case. Here it speculates about the reasons behind the apparent requirement for Case and/or nominal licensing.

Incorporation

The implications of the proposals in Chapter 3 for non-pronominal DPs are taken up here. First, parameters governing the N–D relation, including incorporation, are of central importance. This leads to the question of polysynthesis and Noun Incorporation (NI); here a central issue is how nouns heading complements can incorporate into the verb. Next, we turn to Huang’s proposal that Mandarin Chinese, and other varieties of Chinese past and present, show ‘deep analyticity’, which, as Huang does, we take to reflect a general lack of incorporation. We conclude by revising and generalizing the parameter hierarchy presented at the end of Chapter 3.

Word order and the Final-Over-Final Condition

This chapter develops an antisymmetric view of linearization, along the general lines of Kayne’s antisymmetry theory. A general alternative to earlier accounts of the Final-Over-Final Condition is developed based on Chomsky’s Labelling Algorithm, in particular the proposal that functional heads may vary in their capacity to autonomously label their categories. We propose that ‘weak’ functional categories lack this capacity, and trigger roll-up of their complement in order to effect this. Furthermore, a general version of the Strict Cycle is proposed which is also central to ‘generalized Universal 20 effects’. Finally, we formulate the parameter hierarchy for word-order variation (or, more precisely, for the roll-up movement which is a major determinant of word order across languages) in terms of the labelling-driven account of roll-up. We discuss both how the nature of the macro-, meso-, and microparameters making up that hierarchy can be deduced, and some of the empirical results.

Parameters

This chapter begins by summarizing recent critiques of the principles-and-parameters approach to cross-linguistic variation. It then sets out the explanatory advantages of that approach as they were originally envisaged in the early 1980s, arguing that these are advantages worth retaining. The nature of the empirical challenge posed by cross-linguistic variation is illustrated by a detailed summary of what is known regarding variation of different kinds across the (mainly Italo-)Romance languages, and then by illustrating the fundamental typological unity of these languages by comparing them with Japanese. What further emerges is that many of the properties subject to variation in Romance have no counterparts at all in Japanese, seemingly calling into question the universal nature of parameters. This leads to the development of a four-way typology of parameters as macro-, meso-, micro-, and nanoparameters and the associated hierarchical structure of variation (whereby macro- and mesochoices close off possibilities for microvariation).