Syntactic Variation and Minimalism

What does syntactic variation refer to?

• • Differences in word meanings across languages.

• • Differences in sentence structure and the use of grammatical elements across languages.

Which word order does English primarily follow?

• • Subject-Object-Verb (SOV)

• • Subject-Verb-Object (SVO)

What is parametric variation in linguistic theory?

• • The concept that languages share a common set of parameters but differ in how these parameters are set.

• • The idea that all languages have completely different rules.

Which parameter does English follow regarding subjects in sentences?

• • English requires explicit subjects in sentences.

• • English allows sentences without subjects (null subjects).

How does verb movement in questions differ across languages?

• • Some languages move verbs to the end of questions.

• • Some languages move verbs to the beginning of questions.

What is the typical word order in Japanese?

• • Subject-Object-Verb (SOV)

• • Subject-Verb-Object (SVO)

Which of the following best describes cross-linguistic variation?

• • The study of how linguistic features differ or are shared among different languages.

• • The study of the exact same linguistic features in all languages.

Which sentence is grammatically correct in English?

• • "She often reads books."

• • "She books reads often."

Which sentence structure follows the Subject-Verb-Object order?

• • "The boy intelligent."

• • "The boy is intelligent."

Which of these sentences uses the correct parametric variation for English?

• • "Is she coming?"

• • "She is coming?"