On the particulars of Universal Grammar: implications for acquisition

This study addresses the primitives of Universal Grammar, arguing in favor of an impoverished version of it that is not shaped in the form of principles and parameters. First, we review previous accounts on variation that make a case for lexical and/or syntactic parameters and claim that there are empirical arguments for viewing variation as confined to one component of grammar: morphophonology. Second, we discuss the process of language acquisition in the absence of parameters and parametric hierarchies and we show how the acquisition task is viable without assuming parameters. The cues that aid the learner are identified and schematically integrated in the form of an acquisition algorithm.