Symmetric parameters Clause Samples

Symmetric parameters. A good example of a symmetric parameter may be that which underlies the phenomenon identified by ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ (1992:46ff.) as head vs dependent marking. Morphological features which are relevant to the syntactic relation between the head and its dependent (φ, i.e. person, number, gender, features, case features, etc.) may be realised either on the head or on the dependent (or both, or neither). I illustrate the various instances of head-dependent marking that ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ discusses using the noun-possessor relation; in this case the noun is head and the possessor is the dependent (all examples are from ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ (1992:49ff.), markers are in italics and heads in bold):