EVOLUTIONARY ASPECTS OF LINGUISTIC PHENOMENA – FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF GENERATIVE GRAMMER

Abstract

  From the perspective of generative grammar, language change is nothing other than a special case of language acquisition in which a generation of speakers acquires a grammatical system different from that of the preceding generation. Under the principles-and-parameters approach, language acquisition is conceived of as parameter setting. This paper looks at how the principles-and-parameters approach handles the loss of wh-movement that took place in the history of Japanese.