parameter (n.)

A term used in GOVERNMENT-BINDING THEORY for a specification of the types of variation that a principle of GRAMMAR manifests among different LANGUAGES. It is suggested that there are no RULES of grammar in the traditional sense, but only PRINCIPLES which can take a slightly different form in different languages. For example, a HEAD parameter specifies the positions of heads within PHRASES (e.g. head-first in English, head-last in Japanese). The ADJACENCY parameter of CASE theory specifies whether case assigners must be adjacent to their NOUN phrases (e.g. to the left in English, to the right in Chinese). The PRO-DROP (or ‘null subject’) parameter determines whether the SUBJECT of a CLAUSE can be suppressed. Determining the parametric values for given languages is known as parameter-setting. The overall approach has been called the principles and parameters theory (PPT) of UNIVERSAL grammar, and has since come to be applied outside of syntactic contexts, notably in characterizing PHONOLOGICAL relations. Later versions of METRICAL PHONOLOGY, for example, recognize a series of parameters governing the way metrical FEET should be represented, such as QUANTITY SENSITIVITY and DIRECTIONALITY.

parametric phonetics An approach to PHONETICS which sees speech as a single physiological SYSTEM, in which the range of ARTICULATORY variables (or parameters) in the VOCAL TRACT is seen as being continually in operation, interacting in various ways along the time dimension to produce a continuum of sound which listeners SEGMENT according to the RULES of their LANGUAGE. It thus contrasts with the traditional view of speech, where articulation is seen in advance as a sequence of speech ‘postures’, or segments, each of which is independently definable with reference to a set of isolatable FEATURES (PLACES OF ARTICULATION, MANNER OF ARTICULATION, etc.). This ‘static’ model contrasts with the DYNAMIC parametric model, which has led to fresh interest in the nature of NEUROLINGUISTIC control mechanisms.