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Parameter typology from a diachronic perspective

The case of Conditional Inversion
  • Theresa Biberauer and Ian Roberts
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Theoretical Approaches to Linguistic Variation
This chapter is in the book Theoretical Approaches to Linguistic Variation

Abstract

This paper considers the question of the nature of parameters from a diachronic perspective, focusing in particular on the case of Conditional Inversion (CI) in the history of English. The objective is to show that it is meaningful to think of parameters and their synchronic robustness and consequent diachronic stability in “size” terms. More specifically, we show that it is possible to discern a consistent, but ever more frayed parametric thread linking the availability of verb-movement operations in the history of English: while verb-movement at the earliest stages (Old and early Middle English) can be ascribed to the activation of a Verb Second grammar – conceived of as a grammar requiring verb-movement into the finite C-domain (Force or Fin) in matrix clauses (a mesoparameter) – verb-movement at the early modern stage was much more fragmented, triggered by a smaller class of finite Cs and also, as a result of the loss of V-to-T movement and the rise of a class of auxiliaries, affecting a smaller class of verbs (a microparameter); the situation in modern British and American English, where only had, should and certain uses of were trigger CI, is nanoparametric, a situation which is expected to be unstable, as various post-colonial varieties indeed show it to be. CI in the history of English, then, provides a window on parametric continuity and change.

Abstract

This paper considers the question of the nature of parameters from a diachronic perspective, focusing in particular on the case of Conditional Inversion (CI) in the history of English. The objective is to show that it is meaningful to think of parameters and their synchronic robustness and consequent diachronic stability in “size” terms. More specifically, we show that it is possible to discern a consistent, but ever more frayed parametric thread linking the availability of verb-movement operations in the history of English: while verb-movement at the earliest stages (Old and early Middle English) can be ascribed to the activation of a Verb Second grammar – conceived of as a grammar requiring verb-movement into the finite C-domain (Force or Fin) in matrix clauses (a mesoparameter) – verb-movement at the early modern stage was much more fragmented, triggered by a smaller class of finite Cs and also, as a result of the loss of V-to-T movement and the rise of a class of auxiliaries, affecting a smaller class of verbs (a microparameter); the situation in modern British and American English, where only had, should and certain uses of were trigger CI, is nanoparametric, a situation which is expected to be unstable, as various post-colonial varieties indeed show it to be. CI in the history of English, then, provides a window on parametric continuity and change.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part one: Synchronic variation in phonology and syntax
  6. Germanic and Romance onset clusters – how to account for microvariation 25
  7. The use of gerunds and infinitives in perceptive constructions 53
  8. Adverb and participle agreement 89
  9. Why a bed can be slept in but not under 119
  10. Deriving idiolectal variation 145
  11. On the variable nature of head final effects in German and English 177
  12. Part two: Diachronic variation in phonology and syntax
  13. Variation and change in Italian phonology 205
  14. Which clues for which V2 237
  15. Parameter typology from a diachronic perspective 259
  16. Part three: On the relationship between language variation and language change in bilingual settings
  17. Attrition at the interfaces in bilectal acquisition (Italian/Gallipolino) 295
  18. Little v and cross-linguistic variation 317
  19. On language acquisition and language change 337
  20. Index 371
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.234.10bib

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part one: Synchronic variation in phonology and syntax
  6. Germanic and Romance onset clusters – how to account for microvariation 25
  7. The use of gerunds and infinitives in perceptive constructions 53
  8. Adverb and participle agreement 89
  9. Why a bed can be slept in but not under 119
  10. Deriving idiolectal variation 145
  11. On the variable nature of head final effects in German and English 177
  12. Part two: Diachronic variation in phonology and syntax
  13. Variation and change in Italian phonology 205
  14. Which clues for which V2 237
  15. Parameter typology from a diachronic perspective 259
  16. Part three: On the relationship between language variation and language change in bilingual settings
  17. Attrition at the interfaces in bilectal acquisition (Italian/Gallipolino) 295
  18. Little v and cross-linguistic variation 317
  19. On language acquisition and language change 337
  20. Index 371
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