Comparative Syntax and the Theory of Parameters: On Certain Differences and Similarities between the Fukui and Kuroda Systems

Abstract

In this article, I first point out that Generative Grammar addresses the problem of “explaining” the diversity of human languages, by, somewhat ironically, proposing the concept of UG (Universal Grammar), a common cognitive capacity of homo sapiens. Theoretical explanations require a minimum set of theoretical postulates, and from them, try to derive (in the best cases, deductively) as many empirical phenomena as possible. I argue that the two earliest attempts at the comparative syntax of English and Japanese – Fukui (1986, et seqq.) and Kuroda (1988) – actually tried to propose theoretical explanations in this sense, rather than simply claiming, as widely – and mistakenly – assumed in the literature, that certain features (φ-features) are absent in Japanese. These authors tried to show that there are certain important “clustering effects” that ought to be derived from a single parameter, if the theory of UG is properly modified. I argue that the proper status of these two approaches, vis- à-vis a huge amount of comparative work that followed them in the generative framework, can be appropriately established under this interpretation. I also suggest that recent attempts at deriving clustering effects in various ways can in fact be shown to be rooted in earlier approaches in the 1980s, including the two proposals just mentioned. Exploration into the nature of “clustering effects/patterns” observed in the work of Fukui/Kuroda are likely to unveil the very nature of the “parameter” concept in general linguistic theory.