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Description:
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What is the nature of syntactic structure? Why do some languages have
radically free word order ('nonconfigurationality')? Do parameters vary
independently (the micro-view) or can they co-vary en masse (the macro-view)?
Mirrors and Microparameters, first published in 2009, examines these questions
by looking beyond the definitional criterion of nonconfigurationality - that
arguments may be freely ordered, omitted, and split. Drawing on data from
Kiowa, a member of the largely undescribed Kiowa-Tanoan language family, the
book reveals that classically nonconfigurational languages can nonetheless
exhibit robustly configurational effects. Reconciling the cooccurrence of such
freedom with such rigidity has major implications for the Principles and
Parameters program. This approach to nonconfigurational languages challenges
widespread assumptions of linguistic theory and throws light on the syntactic
structures, ordering principles, and nature of parametrization that comprise
Universal Grammar.
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