Parameter setting and input reduction

The language acquisition procedure identifies certain properties of the target

grammar before others. The evidence from the input is processed in a stepwise

order. Section 1 equates that order and its typical effects with an order of

parameter setting. The question is how the acquisition procedure derives the

order from input evidence. Section 2 proposes a systematic input reduction for

functional categories as the key; the reduction residue contains no more than

a single non-acquired functional category (F?) that is first seen as an optional

element only. If that functional category has turned into the most preferred

option, the input reduction shifts its acquisition focus to the next functional

category. Section 3 and 4 demonstrate how quantitative proportions within the

child’s input reduction determine the underlying order as SOV in Dutch before

the V-second shift for root sentences is derived. The child’s input reductions are

claimed to follow from ignorance rather than from any a priori information.

It is argued that parameters are formal properties of the grammatical system

that originate as cultural discoveries made by a reflexive mind rather than

being task-specific neural a prioris. Section 5 suggests that this view can be

extended to syntactic islands.

Published online: 17 September 2008
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.132.22eve