ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on parameters or, more generally, linguistic variation, which seems hardly a unified phenomenon. It suggests that there are three progressively deeper forms of variation to configure an I-language. The chapter argues that there are three sorts of systemic variations and also that Sub-case parameters must involve data of a second-order sort. This is already slightly different from current assumptions of the "Three Factors" sort, in Chomsky's sense: genetic endowment, experience, and physico-computational laws. The chapter presents the Minimalist Program and Optimality Theory (OT) are compatible. OT is, in turn, a proposal about the plastic manifestation of the system—that externalized structures be conceived as landscapes emerging from re-ranking soft constraints; in effect, it can be seen as an enriched Markedness Theory. It provides a way to sieve through these micro-variants, particularly if people think of it as enriching the Theory of Markedness that sub-set parameters demand.
