Parameters and the design of the language faculty: Northern Italian partial null subjects

Following Berwick and Chomsky (2011), Chomsky et al. (2017), parameters are simply degrees of freedom open at the externalization (EXT) of syntactico-semantic structures (SEM) by sensorimotor systems (PHON). The association of parameter values with lexical items is subsumed by this conception, to the extent that the lexicon is an externalization device (section 1). Within this framework, I focus on the well-known question how to reconcile observable microvariation with the desideratum of a reduced number of general parameters (macroparameters). Section 2 presents a case study concerning Northern Italian subject clitic paradigms. Sections 3 reviews recent relevant models of parameterization, namely the Rethinking Comparative Syntax model (ReCoS, Biberauer et al. 2014) and the Parameters & Schemata model (Longobardi 2005, 2017). Sections 4-5 return to the case study, taking the reductionist view that (micro)parameters may be just (macro)categorial cuts, such as the 1/2P vs 3P split, interacting with externalization.