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Linguistics: Grammar Bookshelf
A field guide for principles and parameters theory
Don Burquest. 2000.
This book is intended for students and field workers who wish to apply Principles and Parameters Theory (formerly known as Government and Binding Theory) to their initial work in previously unanalyzed languages. Principles and Parameters Theory is based upon the fundamental assumption that all language are essentially alike in their core syntax, and equally subject to the constraints of the principles and parameters of Universal Grammar. To the extent that this is a valid claim, the theory suggests a set of hypotheses for the analysis of any language.
The book explains the orientation of the theory and illustrates the characteristics of Universal Grammar that make the theory useful for fieldwork. English is used as the example language, with extensive discussion also of Ngas (SVO), Korean (SOV), and Isnag (VSO). Appendices lay out a proposal by means of which morphology and certain characteristics of discourse structure can be integrated with the sentence-based Principles and Parameters.
