Parameter setting and input reduction

Abstract

The language acquisition procedure identifies certain properties of the target grammar before others. The evidence from the input is processed in a stepwise order. Section 1 equates that order and its typical effects with an order of parameter setting. The question is how the acquisition procedure derives the order from input evidence. Section 2 proposes a systematic input reduction for functional categories as the key; the reduction residue contains no more than a single nonacquired functional category <F?> that is first seen as an optional element only. If that functional category has turned into the most preferred option, the input reduction shifts its acquisition focus to the next functional category. Section 3 and 4 demonstrate how quantitative proportions within the child’s input reduction determine the underlying order as SOV in Dutch before the V-second shift for root sentences is derived. The child’s input reductions are claimed to follow from ignorance rather than from any a priori information. It is argued that parameters are formal properties of the grammatical system that originate as cultural discoveries made by a reflexive mind rather than being task-specific neural a prioris. Section 5 suggests that this view can be extended to syntactic islands.