Rethinking Parameters

Luis Eguren is Full Professor of Spanish Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.; Olga Fernández-Soriano is Full Professor of Spanish Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.; Amaya Mendikoetxea Pelayo is currently a senior lecturer in the department of English Philology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM).

• Introduction ; Luis Eguren, Olga Fernandez Soriano and Amaya Mendikoetxea ; Part I. The nature of variation and parameters ; 1. Language variability in syntactic theory ; David Adger ; 2. Considerations pertaining to the nature of logodiversity ; Cedric Boeckx ; 3. Deriving linguistic variation from learnability conditions: The Chunking Procedure ; Adriana Fasanella and Jordi Fortuny ; 4. Lexical items and feature bundling: Consequences for micro-parametric approaches to variation ; Angel J. Gallego ; 5. Some remarks on parameter hierarchies ; Ian Roberts ; Part II. Parameters in the analysis of language variation: case studies ; 6. Parametric variation in nominal root compounding ; Leah S. Bauke ; 7. Macroparameters break down under the weight of evidence: The <"NP/DP>" Parameter as a case study ; Youngmi Jeong ; 8. The wh parameter and radical externalization ; Eric Mathieu ; 9. The Null Subject Parameter and the lexicon in minimalist syntax ; Guido Mensching and Anja Weingart ; 10. Rethinking parameter theory diachronically: A macrocomparative approach to the analyticization of the verbal tense-aspect systems of Brazilian Portuguese and Coptic Egyptian ; Chris H. Reintges and Sonia Cyrino

The editors of the volume collected an excellent set of papers which should inspire further debate on the parameter and its place within current syntactic theories, a topic that is very much relevant as we continue to discuss the limits of linguistic variation and search for a solution to Plato's Problem.