Mirrors and microparameters
Subtitle: phrase structure beyond free word order
By: David Adger, Daniel Harbour, and Laurel J. Watkins.
Contributors: Harbour, Daniel.; Watkins, Laurel J., 1946-
Series: Cambridge studies in linguistics -- 122
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780521517560
Subjects: Kiowa language -- Syntax; Grammar, Comparative and general -- Syntax
Description: "What is the nature of syntactic structure? Why do some languages have radically free word order ('nonconfigurationality')? Do parameters vary independently (the micro-view) or can they co-vary en masse (the macro-view)? Mirrors and Microparameters examines these questions by looking beyond the definitional criterion of nonconfigurationality - that arguments may be freely ordered, omitted, and split. Drawing on newly discovered data from Kiowa, a member of the largely undescribed Kiowa-Tanoan language family, the book reveals that classically nonconfigurational languages can nonetheless exhibit robustly configurational effects. Reconciling the cooccurrence of such freedom with such rigidity has major implications for the Principles and Parameters program. This novel approach to nonconfigurational languages challenges widespread assumptions of linguistic theory and throws light on the syntactic structures, ordering principles, and nature of parametrization that comprise Universal Grammar"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; 2. Nonconfigurationality and polysynthesis; 3. The clausal spin; 4. Making mirrors; 5. Interface properties of clausal domains; 6. Anti-quantification and the syntax-semantics interface; 7. Conclusion.