Parameter Hierarchies and Comparative Syntax

“This talk looks at a way to break new ground in syntactic theory by reconceptualising the principles-and-parameters approach to comparative syntax, retaining its strengths and attempting to deal with its perceived weaknesses. The central idea is to organise the parameters of Universal Grammar (UG) into hierarchies, which define the ways in which properties of individually variant categories may act in concert; this creates macroparametric effects from the combined action of many microparameters. The highest position in a hierarchy defines a macroparameter, a major typological property, lower positions define successively more local properties. Parameter-setting in language acquisition starts at the highest position as this is the simplest choice; acquirers will “move down the hierarchy” when confronted with primary linguistic data (PLD) incompatible with a high setting. Hence the hierarchies simultaneously define learning paths and typological properties.

I will introduce five hierarchies: those determining word-order, null arguments, word structure, discourse-configurationality and case/agreement alignment. These five hierarchies, although not exhaustive, combine to give a typological footprint of many languages, as well as providing the basis for the study of the interaction of micro- and macroparameters. In this way, the criticism that formal comparative syntax has little to offer typological studies can potentially be answered. Lastly, a more purely theoretical component of the talk aims to show that the nature of the hierarchies is determined, not directly by UG, but by UG interacting with domain-general principles of simplicity and efficiency.”

“Linguistic Atonement and Structural Oblivion: Penitence and Hegemony in White Kenyan Language Ideologies”

Abstract: My argument in this talk hinges on the observation that white Kenyan relationships with Kenya’s lingua franca, Kiswahili, stand as a synecdoche for the broader question of white Kenyans’ role in the nation. On the one hand, white Kenyans have shifted from an early twentieth century colonial attitude toward Kiswahili that was patently pejorative to a much more congenial footing I call “linguistic atonement,” in which language enthusiasms and longings are enacted through linguistic behavior as well as meta-linguistically performed, in hopes that such attitudes might help mitigate a history of colonial discrimination. Yet despite the good feelings of many white Kenyans towards Kiswahili, they nevertheless reify a subtle but persistent hierarchy of languages, one established in the colonial era through colonial policies and settler habits, but now largely uninterrogated. Because white Kenyans are so aware of their positive feelings toward Kiswahili but relatively unawa!
re of their role in an enduring linguistic hierarchy that continues to benefit them, I deem their language attitudes an instance of what I call “structural oblivion”; that is, an elite group’s relative lack of awareness of their own complicity in hegemony, no matter how well-meaning they may be.