Delphi module

2.5
Appendix: Universal Grammar

(Supplement to section 2.2.3.2)

Principles and parameters

It has been hypothesized that Universal Grammar consists of principles, which all languages follow, and parameters, which represent a restricted range of structural possibilities. Here is a flavour of the kind of knowledge that linguists have hypothesized makes up our Universal Grammar:

The principle of structure dependency

All languages are built around the unit of 'phrases' or 'constituents', not single words.

eg To form a question from a statement, you need to know about moving 'phrases' not words:

Jo is in the garden -> Is Jo in the garden? ü
Possible rule = switch first and second words around BUT ...

The cat is in the garden -> Cat the is in the garden X
SO possible rule = move the verb to the beginning of the sentence

Is the cat in the garden ü
The cat who is in the garden at the moment is next door's
Is the cat who in the garden at the moment is next door's? X

Sensible Rule = move the main verb in front of the subject noun phrase
[Is] - [the cat who is in the garden at the moment] - next door's?

The principle of phrase construction

The basic components of these 'phrases' are a key element (known as the HEAD), plus associated elements known as SPECIFIERS and COMPLEMENTS which all behave in predictable ways, whatever the nature of the head.

Noun head :	[The] CAT* [in the garden]*
Verb head	[often] CATCHES* [birds]*
Adjective head	The cat is [very] CONTENT [to bask in the sun]
Preposition head	to bask [ ] IN [the sun]

As you can see, various words can make up the Specifier and the Complement units, and phrases can be contained within phrases, but each phrase unit has the same basic construction.

The Head parameter

Languages appear to have two basic alternatives with regard to the position of the HEAD element and its COMPLEMENT. The HEAD can either come before the COMPLEMENT as is the case in English or French

Verb phrase ....	TUE la souris	(KILLS the mouse)
Prepositional phrase...	DANS le jardin	(IN the garden)

or it can come after, as in Japanese or Chinese

Verb phrase	Nihonjin DESU	(Japanese AM)
Prepositional phrase	Nihon NI	(Japan IN)

To explain how Universal Grammar can be claimed to facilitate the first language acquisition process, let us take the example of the Head Parameter. Instead of having to work out how every single word functions in relation to every single other word, children need only be alert to two possibilities - head first or head last. They can assume that this construction principle will apply generally throughout the grammar. This makes any variations much easier to deal with, because somehow the child knows they are exceptions. These exceptions to Universal Grammar will then have to be learned through implicit induction from the input and memorization.

This appears to be what happens for L1 French children learning to put a complement (object pronouns) before a head (the verb). As a general rule, complements follow heads in French as in English

but	Le chat TUE* [la souris]*	(The cat KILLS [the mouse])
but	Le chat [la] TUE	(The cat [it] KILLS)

The assumption is that French children will very quickly place complements after heads (objects after verbs), according to their Head Parameter setting. Object pronouns are an exception to this, so this structural feature has to be induced from the input - and sure enough, French children have problems acquiring the correct positioning of object pronouns just as English learners of French do (see Reflective task 9, and for more discussion Towell and Hawkins, 1994: 68-70)