Parameters : The View from Child Language

1. Questions In this paper I will be concerned with two principal issues: (1) Is syntactic variation a "deep" domain of inquiry, supporting rich, explanatory generalizations? (2) If so, how can we discover these generalizations? I will present three case studies to illustrate how acquisitional evidence can be brought to bear on parametric questions. My conclusion will be that syntactic variation is indeed a deep domain of inquiry, and that child language acquisition is a rich source of evidence concerning the parameters of variation.