Edited by M. Carme Picallo
In this book, leading scholars consider the ways in which syntactic variation can be accounted for in a minimalist framework. They explore the theoretical significance, content, and role of parameters; whether or not variation should be strongly or weakly accounted for by syntactic factors; and
the explicitness - or lack thereof - that should be assumed with respect to the conditions imposed by narrow syntax.
The book is divided into two parts. The first part contains chapters that consider the term "parameter" to be a relevant theoretical notion under minimalist tenets. In the
second part, on the other hand, chapters either argue that the term parameter amounts to no more than a label to describe variation, or assign it a less prominent role. Instead, language variation is attributed to sociolinguistic factors, language contact, frequency of use, or simply to options in
the externalization of abstract syntactic relations.
The book offers a valuable overview of the different approaches adopted in the study of language variation phenomena, and will appeal to theoretical linguists of all persuasions from graduate level upwards.
1. M. Carme Picallo: Introduction: Syntactic variation and Minimalist inquiries
Part I: The Parametric Approach: The PP Revisited View
2. Luigi Rizzi: On the elements of syntactic variation
3. Mark Baker: Types of cross-linguistic variation in case assignment
4. Anders
Holmberg and Ian Roberts: Parameters and the three factors of language design
5. Anna Cardinaletti: Cross-linguistic variation in the syntax of subjects
6. Ricardo Etxepare: Contact and change in a Minimalist theory of variation
7. Michal Starke: Towards elegant parameters: Language
variation reduces to the size of lexicaly-stored trees
Part II: Variation Without Parameters
8. Cedric Boeckx: What Principles and Parameters got wrong
9. David Adger: Variability and grammatical architecture
10. Sjef Barbiers: Syntactic doubling and deletion as a source of
variation
11. M. Carme Picallo: Some concluding remarks
References
Index of languages and dialects
Index of subjects
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M. Carme Picallo is Professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and member of the Centre de Lingüística Teòrica. Her research interests focus on syntactic theory and syntactic variation. Her publications include papers in Linguistic Inquiry, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory,
Journal of Linguistics, and Probus. She is the co-editor, along with Montserrat Batllori, Maria-Lluïsa Hernanz, and Francesc Roca, of Grammaticalization and Parametric Variation (OUP 2005) and has contributed chapters to several international peer-reviewed collective volumes.
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