Models of language variation and change
Description of the project (from the Research Proposal written by Rita Manzini) - Parametric models
In short, the data collection and formal analysis efforts detailed above are expected to contribute to our knowledge of linguistic facts and our models of linguistic systems in several ways, connecting back to the general discussion of the state of the art.
We expect to collect new data relating to syntactic variation and change in varieties spoken in conditions of contact. The type of syntactic data we propose to collect and to make accessible is only very partially documented, often by the members of the research team themselves.
We expect to contribute to the analysis of syntactic phenomena involved in variations and change, possibly lying at the interface between syntactic computation and externalization systems. Phenomena involved in the interface are at least linear order and case/agreement processes.
We expect to be able to show that factors external to the grammar of a given language, such as contact with another language, can influence the shape of the grammar, determining quicker evolution, divergence/convergence phenomena with close cognates and with the contact language. This catalyzer role of contact means that situations of contact provide a particularly useful setting for the study of variation and change.
At the same time we expect that external factors may act on a language strictly within the limits defined by the Language Faculty and by its own grammar (lexicon). The choice of a contact setting is in fact meant to help us disentangling the two.
Finally, a reason why we focus on contact is that formal work in this specific domain is hard to come across. As part of the larger project of description, formal analysis and formal modelling that we expect to carry out, as just detailed, we specifically aim at bridging the gap between contact studies and formal grammars.
We are seeking to formulate and empirically verify hypotheses such as for instance the Resistance Principle of Guardiano et al. (2016): “Resetting of parameter α from value X to Y in language A as triggered by interference of language B only takes place if a subset of the strings that contribute to constituting a trigger or value Y of parameter α in language B already exists in language A”. In other words, the resetting of a parameter under the influence of interference data is possible only if the new triggers are similar enough to triggers already unmistakably present in the interfered language, though of course not sufficient on their own to trigger the new value.
In turn, a radical interpretation of Inertia (Keenan 2009) would require that the external pressure resulting in parameter resetting takes place not simply when possible, but rather when needed to fill an independently-created void (we may call this the Functional Void principle). This raises the further question whether a similar account eventually applies to all cases of syntactic borrowing, or whether the latter may take place even in cases where it is not required (in the sense delimited by the Resistance Principle).
In general, we seek to formalize hypotheses about the interaction of external and internal forces in linguistic variation in such way as to make them empirically verifiable within standard syntactic models.