Optional infinitives a phenomenon reported for early

optional infinitives: a phenomenon reported for early stages of L1 acquisition of
many languages, where the main verb in the child’s utterance is sometimes finite
and sometimes non-finite.
orientation: used to distinguish between anaphors that require their antecedents
to be subjects (subject-oriented) and those that do not have such a requirement.
Overt Pronoun Constraint: a principle of UG which states that overt pronouns
in null-subject languages cannot receive a bound variable interpretation.
parameter: a principle of UG which is not invariant. Parameters have built in
options/settings/values (usually binary) and are proposed as an account of
crosslinguistic variation. Most parameters are currently formulated in terms
of variation in feature strength.

Glossary 279
parsing: the assignment of structural representations to utterances as they are
heard.
periphrastic causative: an expression which makes use of a verb such as make
(or its equivalent) in order to express causation, e.g. Mary made her children do
their homework .
phi ( φ )-features: features involved in agreement, such as number, person and
gender.
pied-piping: a situation (in a question or relative clause) where the whole prepo-
sitional phrase, including the preposition, undergoes wh -movement , e.g. Up
which hill did she climb?
positive evidence: the input (utterances) that the language learner is exposed to.
Also referred to as primary linguistic data .
primary linguistic data (PLD): see positive evidence .
preposition stranding: a situation (in a question or relative clause) where a
preposition is ‘left behind’ when part of the prepositional phrase undergoes
wh -movement , e.g. Which hill did she climb up?
pro : a null pronoun (often referred to as small pro ), occurring as the subject of
finiteclausesinnull-subjectlanguages.Somelanguagesalsopermitanull-object
pro .
PRO: an empty category (often referred to as big PRO ) which is typically found
as the subject of non-finite clauses, e.g. The children want to win .
process nominal: a nominal which describes an event or something ongoing, e.g.
destruction in The enemy’s destruction of the city was awful to watch .
prodrop: see null subject .
projection: the expansion of some head into another constituent, for example,
NP is a projection of N, VP is a projection of V, etc. A maximal projection is
the topmost expansion of a head. There can also be intermediate projections
between the head and the maximal projection.
Proper Antecedent Parameter: a parameter accounting for crosslinguistic differ-
ences in the orientation of anaphors. Some anaphors require their antecedents
to be subjects (e.g. Japanese zibun ), whereas others permit both subject and
object antecedents (e.g. English himself/herself ).
Proper Government: see Government .
psych verbs: verbs which express psychological states, such as anger , disap-
point , and frighten . Some psych verbs take experiencer subjects and theme
objects (e.g. fear ), while others take theme subjects and experiencer objects
(e.g. frighten ).