Parameter setting
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Transcript of Parameter setting
Some observations
• Language is complicated
DP
PP
N’
N
NP
visit
DPhis
DP D’
D
DP
[poss]
to the hospital
i
ti
VP
IP
V
V’
I’
I
[past] DP
her
DP
upset
j
tj
Some observations
• Children always succeed
• Children arrive at the same language as the rest of their speech community
This is remarkable, given the data that children learn language from.
The poverty of the stimulus
• children exposed to data containing errors
• different children exposed to different data
• children don’t get negative evidence• children aren’t directly rewarded • children get incomplete data
The poverty of the stimulus problem
A paradox: Children reliably acquire a complex system from a degenerate set of data.
The poverty of the stimulus problem
A solution: Universal Grammar
Children are born with a language instinct
Language acquisition
An interaction between grammar and data S --> NP VPNP --> DET NVP --> V NP PPPP --> P NPS --> S and SNP --> NP andNP
Apparent Complexity
• “A striking discovery of modern generative grammar is that natural languages seem to be built on the same basic plan. Many differences among languages represent not separate designs but different settings of a few "parameters" that allow languages to vary, or different choices of rule types from a fairly small inventory of possibilities.”– Pinker, Language Acquisition
Universal Grammar: the basic idea
Input(data)
Output(grammar)
Acquisition device
“An engineer faced with the problem of designing a device for meeting the given input-output conditions would naturally conclude that the basic properties of the output are a consequence of the design of the device. Nor is there any plausible alternative to this
assumption” Chomsky (1967)
Universal Grammar
Innate linguistic knowledge which guides children during language acquisition.
• defines the range of possible human languages
• gives an acquisition procedure for picking the correct grammar (LAD)
UG and language acquisition
• UG helps in two ways:–Principles
• Certain invariant properties of language.
–Parameters• A small set of dimensions along
which languages can vary.
A Principle: structure-dependency
Syntactic operations depend on constituent structure.
Example: yes/no questions
Isi the girl ti tall?
Isi the dog that is in the garden ti barking?
Formed by moving main clause auxiliary verb to front of subject.
Not, e.g., moving the first aux to the front.
Structure-dependency and stimulus poverty
The crucial type of example:• Isi the dog that is in the garden ti
barking?
“You can go over a vast amount of data of experience without ever finding such a case ” Chomsky, in Piattelli-Palmarini (1980)
Principles: a summary
• UG contains information on invariant properties of language– Principles
• All languages have these properties– universal
• Children don’t have to learn these properties– innate knowledge
Parameters
Language acquisition is “the growth of cognitive structures along an internally directed course under the triggering … effect of the environment ” (Chomsky 1980)
Parameter: head-complement ordering
The head-order parameter has two settings:• head-initial• head-final
Typological data
From Dryer (1992)
Class Percentage of Genera
Verb-Object, Preposition 33%
Verb-Object, Postposition 3%
Object-Verb, Preposition 3%
Object-Verb, Postposition 61%
Parameter: head-complement ordering
What order do heads and complements appear in?
IP
CP
C’
C
if
VP
IP
I’
I
will
DP
VP
V’
V
write
DP
PP
P’
P
to
Parameter: head-complement ordering
What order do heads and complements appear in?
IP
CP
C’
C
ka
VP
IP
I’
I
-u
DP
VP
V’
V
kak
DP
PP
P’
P
ni
The null subject parameter
• “…all languages in some sense have subjects, but there is a parameter corresponding to whether a language allows the speaker to omit the subject in a tensed sentence with an inflected verb. This "null subject" parameter (sometimes called "PRO-drop") is set to "off" in English and "on" in Spanish and Italian (Chomsky, 1981).”– Pinker, Language Acquisition
The null subject parameter
Yes: tensed clauses can have null subjectsNo: every tensed clause must have an overt subject
No setting: English (French, Edo, …)(1) he speaks(2) * speaks
Yes setting: Italian (Spanish, Navajo, …) (3) lui parla(4) parla
The null subject parameter
Dummy subjects
(1)it is raining / * is raining
(2)piove
Non-movement of subjects
(1)Alex will come / * will come Alex
(2)Alex verrá / verrá Alex
The null subject parameter
• The best parameters are those which have several different effects. There are a number of things which seem to “cluster” with the availability of null subjects (providing clues as to what the actual parameter is).– null subjects are allowed– no pleonastic (dummy) pronouns (it’s raining)– rich verbal agreement– verb can precede subject in declaratives (came
John)– Embedded subject can be questioned with overt that
A parameter space
polysynthesis
head directionality
subject side
verb attraction
subject placement serial verb
null subject
yesno
Mohawk, Warlpirifinalinitial
Japanese, Turkishinitial final
Malagasy, Tzotzilyes
no
no yes
English Edo, Khmer
highlow
Welsh, Zapotec no yes
French Spanish, Romanian
Parameter Setting
• How does the child set the parameters?– Settings ordered– Default setting– Settings change with positive evidence.
The Subset Principle
• What’s the default setting?– No negative evidence.– Nothing to change a parameter setting
from superset to subset.– A null-subject language is a superset of a
language that requires subjects.
Parameters in L2 Learning
• Languages differ in the settings of parameters (as well as in the pronunciations of the words, etc.).
• To learn a second language is to learn the parameter settings for that language.
• Where do you keep the parameters from the second, third, etc. language? You don’t have a single parameter set two different ways, do you?
• “Parameter resetting” doesn’t mean monkeying with your L1 parameter settings, it means setting your L2 parameter to its appropriate setting.
Four views on the role of L1 parameters
• UG is still around to constrain L2/IL, parameter settings of L1 are adopted at first, then parameters are reset to match L2.
• UG does not constrain L2/IL but L1 does, L2 can adopt properties of L1 but can’t reset the parameters (except perhaps in the face of brutally direct evidence, e.g., headedness).
• IL cannot be described in terms of parameter settings—it is not UG-constrained.
• UG works the same in L1A and L2A. L1 shouldn’t have any effect.
Some parameters that have been looked at in L2
• Pro drop (null subject) parameter (whether empty subjects are allowed; Spanish yes, English no)
• Head parameter (where the head is in X-bar structure with respect to its complement; Japanese head-final, English head-initial)
• ECP/that-trace effect (*Who did you say that t left? English: yes, Dutch: no).
• Subjacency/bounding nodes (English: DP and IP, Italian/French: DP and CP).
Null subject parameter
• Spanish (+NS) L1 learning English (–NS)– An error constituting transfer of +NS would be omitting a
subject in an English sentence, which requires a subject.
• English (–NS) L1 learning Spanish (+NS)– What would count as an error constituting transfer of +NS?
Trickier—have to look for context where Spanish would definitely drop the subject, and see if English speakers incorrectly retain the subject. Even then, does that mean the Spanish learner doesn’t have the parameter down, or just hasn’t worked out the pragmatics of where a subject should be dropped?
Principles and Parameters: summary
Principles: provided by UG, invariantParameters: provided by UG, languages
vary in parameter settings
P&P explains: • language acquisition • language universals• linguistic variation