Principles and Parameters

Principles and Parameters are ideas from linguistics that explain how languages are structured. Principles are universal rules shared by all languages, like the idea that sentences have a subject and a verb. Parameters are optional settings or choices that individual languages select, such as word order—some languages put the verb before the object, others after. Think of Principles as the basic laws of grammar that everyone follows, while Parameters are the specific options a language chooses within those laws. Together, they help explain both the commonalities and differences among languages.