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SUMMARY:[Online talk] - The Syntax of Verbs: Language Typology\, Language 
 Change and a little bit of Language Acquisition - Prof Ian Roberts (Univer
 sity of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20200528T153000Z
DTEND:20200528T170000Z
UID:TALK142423@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Julia Heine
DESCRIPTION:I begin by presenting the results of recent work in comparativ
 e syntax demonstrating three distinct clausal positions for finite verbs i
 n English\, French and German (V2). This typology is developed by introduc
 ing subject-raising and object-movement so that all the major\, non-object
 -initial word-order patterns of the world’s languages are accounted for 
 (SVO\, SOV\, VSO and VOS). Focussing on SVO languages\, I next summarise t
 he important proposals in Schifano (2018) showing that across Romance ther
 e are at least four distinct landing sites in the Tense-Mood-Aspect zone o
 f the clause for finite lexical verbs\, all of them higher than the positi
 on of the English lexical verb and lower than the V2 landing site. This le
 ads to a distinction between meso- and microparameters. Chinese illustrate
 s the Tense macroparameter. These results are combined into a Tense-parame
 ter hierarchy.\n\nTurning to language change\, I present the evidence that
  Early Modern English was like French with regard to verb-movement. So the
  V-to-T parameter changed in 17th-century English. This change was connect
 ed to a change in the status of tense-agreement inflection\, and entailed 
 the introduction of Affix-Hopping as a repair strategy. The same has happe
 ned in the very recent history of Faroese. Finally\, I briefly look at lan
 guage acquisition\, concentrating on root infinitives. I argue that these 
 appear in two kinds of marked system: non-null-subject languages with V-to
 -T movement (French\, Icelandic) and languages with Affix Hopping (all of 
 Germanic except Icelandic). Modern English is a special case as it involve
 s the nanoparameter of do-support\, a highly marked and late-acquired opti
 on.\n\n
LOCATION:Online
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