The Universality of Grammar in the Context of Principles and Parameters Theory

This paper examines the universality of grammar in the context of Chomsky’s Principles and Parameters Theory, with a view to establishing its applicability in natural language processing. The study adopted a qualitative crosslinguistic research design. Samples of sentences drawn from English and three Nigerian languages (Yoruba, Edo and Izon) constituted the data for the study. The sources of the data were published language texts on the selected languages. The sentences were subjected to syntactic analysis. The study substantiates the claim that headedness and movement are common properties of natural languages, and it explicates patterns of variation in position of heads in phrases. The projection principle, extended projection principle, adjacency condition, empty category principles and binding principles A, B and C are core components of UG. Endocentricity principle and spec-head agreement are periphery components of UG. It is concluded in the study that UG is substantiated in real language use. Hence, it is not mere abstraction. Principles and Parameters Theory adequately takes care of UG components and claims.

Keywords: Universal Grammar Universality of Grammar Principles and Parameters Transformational Syntax Natural Language Processing

Author

• Akiyemi Temitope Akinmurele
  Department of English, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
  Email: yemiakinmurele@yahoo.com