ABSTRACT
This chapter can be thought of as an exercise in the application of the theory of parameters to a set of data. The author discusses a fairly simple, well-known, and well-understood parameter and show how evidence from language change, language acquisition, and creolization supports the idea that there is an unmarked value of this parameter: the “weak” value in terms of Chomsky’s proposals. The evidence clearly shows that finite verbs are in different positions in the two languages like French and English languages. The alternative is to suggest that the X-elements differ between the two languages, by Williams. The crosslinguistic evidence from English and North Germanic clearly establishes a link between agreement marking and verb movement. Roberts formulated this link in terms of number agreement, suggesting that overt, distinct marking of number agreement is the relevant kind of “richness.”.
