Universal Grammar and American Sign Language

1. Universal Grammar and American Sign Language.- 1. Introduction.- 1.1 Rationale.- 1.2 Syntax.- 1.3 Acquisition.- 1.4 Summary.- 2. The Theoretical Framework: Government and Binding.- 2.1 General Directions.- 2.2 Principles and Sub-Theories.- 2.2.1 Government Theory.- 2.2.2 Theta-Theory (and the Projection Principle).- 2.2.3 Binding Theory.- 2.3 Empty Categories.- 2.3.1 The Syntactic Reality of Empty Categories.- 2.3.2 Typology of Empty Categories.- 2.3.3 Restrictions on Empty Categories.- 3. The Structure of American Sign Language.- 3.1 Nominal Establishment.- 3.2 Verb Agreement.- 3.3 Is Agreement in ASL Inflection or Cliticization?.- 3.3.1 Morphological Characteristics of Cliticization vs. Inflection.- 3.3.2 Syntactic Distinctions between Inflection and Cliticization.- 3.4 Extraction in ASL.- 4. Language Acquisition.- 4.1 Learnability.- 4.2 The Acquisition of ASL.- 4.2.1 Early Acquisition.- 4.2.2 Modality Effects.- Notes.- 2. Null Arguments in American Sign Language.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Null Pronominal Arguments of Agreeing Verbs.- 2.1 Overview.- 2.2 pro as a Locus-Assigning Pronoun.- 2.3 pro as a Resumptive Pronoun.- 2.4 pro as a Crossover-Evading Resumptive Pronoun.- 2.5 pro as a Binding Condition B Pronoun.- 2.6 Pro-Drop Properties.- 3. Some Previous Analyses of Null Pronouns.- 3.1 Null Subjects as [ + anaphor]: Rizzi (1982).- 3.1.1 Proper Government vs. Identifiability.- 3.1.2 The Separation of Null Subjects and Inversion Effects.- 3.2 Null Subjects as [ + pronominal]: Chomsky (1981, 1982).- 3.3 Null Pronominal Objects: Rizzi (1986).- 4. The Null Pronoun Parameters.- 4.1 Licensing and Identification.- 4.2 The Structure of Licensing Heads.- 4.3 The Place of Morphological Agreement in the Null Pronoun Parameters.- 5. The Occurrence of Null Arguments with Non-Agreeing Verbs.- 5.1 Huang's Account of Chinese Null Arguments.- 5.2 A Null Topic Account of ASL Null Arguments of Plain Verbs.- 5.3 'Genuine' Null Object Pronouns.- 6. Questions for Huang's Account of Chinese.- 6.1 Alternative Accounts of Chinese and Japanese.- 6.1.1 Different Dialects.- 6.1.2 Embedded Topics.- 6.1.3 Null Epithets.- 6.2 Jaeggli and Safir (1989).- 7. A Cross-Linguistic Survey of Null Arguments.- 7.1 Languages with Null Pronominal Subjects Identified by Verb Agreement.- 7.2 Languages with Null Pronominal Non-Subject Arguments Identified by Verb Agreement.- 7.3 Languages with Topic-Identified Null Arguments.- 7.4 Languages with Object pro Not Identified by AGR.- 7.5 Languages with Null Expletives Only.- 8. Setting the Null Argument Parameters.- 8.1 Synopsis of Null Argument Parameters and Language Typology.- 8.2 Null Arguments in ASL.- 8.3 The Learnability of Null Arguments.- Notes.- 3. Acquiring the Correct Settings on the Null Argument Parameters.- 1. Introduction.- 2. The Acquisition of Null Argument Structures in ASL: Production.- 2.1 Subjects.- 2.2 Methodology.- 2.3 Results.- 2.4 Discussion.- 3. The Acquisition of Null Pronoun Structures in ASL: Imitation.- 3.1 Subjects.- 3.2 Methodology.- 3.3 Results.- 3.3.1 Pronoun Deletions.- 3.3.2 Pronoun (NP) Additions.- 3.4 Discussion.- 4. Effects of the Acquisition of Morphology on Syntactic Parameter Setting.- 4.1 The Acquisition of ASL Verb Agreement Morphology.- 4.2 Verb Agreement and Parameter Setting.- 4.3 Factors Contributing to the Acquisition of Morphology.- 4.4 Cross-Linguistic Predictions.- 5. The Acquisition of Null and Overt Arguments in Spoken Languages.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Null Arguments in Early English.- 5.3 The Acquisition of Null Arguments in Japanese and Chinese.- 5.4 The Acquisition of Null Arguments in Other Languages.- 5.5 What are the Initial Settings of the Null Argument Parameters?.- 6. Performance Accounts of Children's Null Subjects.- 6.1 Three Performance-Based Accounts of Early Null Subjects.- 6.2 Possible Evidence Against a Performance-Based Account of Early Null Subjects.- 7. Conclusion.- Notes.- 4. Summary, Suggestions, and Conclusions.- 1. Summary of Results.- 1.1 Chapter Two.- 1.2 Chapter Three.- 2. Suggestions for an Analysis of the Initial Settings.- 3. A Model of Language and Mind.- 3.1 Parameters.- 3.2 Modularity.- 3.3 Conclusion.- Notes.- Appendix 1: Subjects Involved in Production and Imitation Studies.- Appendix 2: Imitation Task Stimuli.- References.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.