Speaker: Jenneke van der Wal (University of Cambridge)
Topic: From macroparameters to nanoparameters: a comparative Bantu case study
Time: 13:15 -14:30
Venue: Eyckhof 2/006
Abstract
According to the Borer-Chomsky Conjecture (Baker 2008), all parameters of variation are attributable to differences in the features of the functional heads in the lexicon. Parameters thus concern the presence and distribution of formal features on heads, e.g. phi features on v and T. In “size” terms, we might expect parameters of different kinds, depending on this distribution (Biberauer and Roberts 2012):
(1) For a given value vi of a parametrically variant feature F:
a. Macroparameters: all functional heads of the relevant type share vi;
b. Mesoparameters: all functional heads of a given naturally definable class, e.g. [+V], share vi;
c. Microparameters: a small subclass of functional heads (e.g. modal auxiliaries, pronouns) shows vi;
d. Nanoparameters: one or more individual lexical items is/are specified for vi.
We test this idea in Bantu languages, where parameters of different “sizes” are indeed found. A proposed macroparameter relates to abstract Case (Diercks 2012), which seems to affect the presence/absence of [uCase] features for a whole language. On a meso-level, we can think of subject and object agreement, uϕ being restricted to the extended projection of V. But object agreement also figures in microparametric variation, for example in sensitivity to animacy. Finally, the extremely restricted locative classes in Tswana can be thought of in nanoparametric terms.
For Bantu, then, it seems possible to identify parameters corresponding to all of the types in (1). Moreover, we see evidence from within this family that languages may vary as to the “grain” of their parametric settings: what is macro in one system could be nano in another. This suggests that it may be productive to pursue the kind of hierarchical approach to parametric variation currently being pursued in the context of the ReCoS project (see http://recos-dtal.mml.cam.ac.uk).