Nanoparameters in Western Iberian Romance
Null-copulas in Galician and Asturian
Abstract
In this paper, we address two separate cases of null-copular constructions in Galician and Asturian that on the surface appear to be identical but exhibit subtle yet important differences. We show that these differences entail theoretical assumptions that distinguish their underlying syntactic operations. Furthermore, we propose that the unification of both instances of null-copular constructions lies in nanoparametric variation (Biberauer & Roberts 2015b), which differs from microparameteric variation in the sense that the former is only acquired by the learner in a “bottom up” fashion via direct evidence. That is, nanoparametric phenomena do not constitute a parameter setting that may be indirectly acquired based on indirect evidence.
Keywords
null-copula, Western Iberian, Romance, nanoparameter, microparameter, variation, cliticization, interrogativesReferences
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