Concept of Parameters in Language (Pro-drop Parameter as an Example)

Abstract

Languages consist basically of principles and parameters. The principles cover the biological aspect of language as well as the grammatical aspects common to all languages. While the parameters include those grammatical characteristics that differ between languages. This article is devoted to study the concept of parameters in general, and specifically that of the Pro-drop parameter. However, since understanding the concept of parameters thoroughly without having prior information about the concept of principles is unattainable, the study therefore, clarifies the concept of the latter in the natural languages before addressing the former. In addition, its discussion of the concept of parameters would be as the complement to the concept of principles. In return, it’s meant by parameters all the grammatical divergences that a child learns during the language acquisition process. This implies that the parameters are correlated to the linguistic experiences of humans in different cultural and social environments. It is then the linguistic experiences which determine a specific grammar for a specific language, within the limits of universal grammar. It is also worth mentioning that the grammatical varieties in languages, which have been studied in the context of various types of parameters, are plenty and multi-demensional, yet, the practical aspect of this study, discusses only one sort of parameters, which is Pro-drop parameter. This article finally demostrates the different analysises proposed for the discription of the null subjectivity of languages (Kurdish language in particular).