Dr. Mario Navarro

• Juli 2021: Promotion in Romanischer Philologie/Linguistik an der Universität Hamburg
  Thema der Promotion: Language design and parametric interaction. Approaching the emergence of Clitic Doubling from below.
• Januar 2014: Master of Arts (Romanistische Linguistik) an der Universität Hamburg
  Thema der Masterarbeit: „Macroparametric Exaptation. The emergence of Clitic-Doubling.“
• Juni 2011: Bachelor of Arts (Spanisch/Linguistik) an der Universität Hamburg
  Thema der Bachelorarbeit: „Forma Lógica y Cuantificación Múltiple. Aspectos de la Interfaz sintáctico-semántica.“

• 2014 bis heute: Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Institut für Romanistik, Universität Hamburg
• Februar 2014 bis Oktober 2018: Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Institut für Romanistik, Universität Hamburg (DFG Projekt FI 875/3-1: „Klitische Dopplung in den romanischen Sprachen“: Prof. Dr. Susann Fischer/Prof. Dr. Esther Rinke)

• Lehrtätigkeit an der Universität Hamburg:
  Seminare Ia:
           Einführung in die Linguistik der romanischen Sprachen
  Seminare Ib:
          Grundzüge der formalen Syntax
          Grundzüge der formalen Morphologie
          Grundzüge der formalen Semantik
          Grundzüge der Phonologie
  Seminare II:
          Parametric Theory
          Sprachvariation
          Sprachwandel
          Sprachevolution/Biolinguistik 

Promotion:

Language design and parametric exaptation. Approaching the emergence of Clitic Doubling from below.

ABSTRACT
According to the biological nature of human language, the language genotype or Universal Grammar (UG) has to be sufficiently stable to ensure its genetic replication. Contrarily, the language phenotype would not have developed across our species. From this perspective, one of the major challenges of the biolinguistic program is how to explain linguistic diversity despite the stability of the genetic endowment. One of the central proposals to resolve this dilemma has been to assume that UG consists of a set of general “principles with certain possibilities of parametric variation” (Chomsky 1981:6). This theory, however, is associated with a strong genetic-centrist perspective, and, despite its descriptive success regarding linguistic diversity, the vast number of parameters identified have led to an overspecified conception of UG (Newmeyer 2005). Thus, the aim of this dissertation is to explore the nature of parameters from a minimalist/biolinguistic perspective, arguing that they are emergent properties, that is, not specified in UG. In addition, based on new empirical data, I propose a new parameter taxonomy, also supporting the epigenetic approach assumed in this study. The “overspecified” UG clearly challenges the design properties assumed by the minimalist program (Chomsky 1995). Moreover, genetic-centrism is not currently accepted by most biological development theories, which focus instead on the interaction of a complex set of developmental properties (Lorenzo & Longa 2009). Finally, this overspecified UG is also incompatible with current theories regarding language evolution (Hornstein 2009, Boeckx 2009), which agree that the rise of human language is a recent change in Homo sapiens, necessarily implying that UG has to be as simple as possible (Chomsky 2007, 2010).

In my dissertation, I therefore try to solve the “overspecification problem” by arguing that parameters are actually emergent, hierarchically-organized properties  that are not specified in UG. To this end, I address Roberts’ (2012) current proposal of parameter emergence as a consequence of the interaction of Chomsky’s (2005) three factors in language design. However, I also argue that Roberts’s interactional approach is too strong, ignoring certain kinds of parameters. In this sense, and based on new data provided by the Clitic Doubling Parameter in Romance Languages project (see, e.g., Navarro et al. 2017), I propose an extended theory of the interactional nature of parameter emergence.

To show this, I discuss the emergence of the Clitic Doubling Parameter, whose interactional scenario involves the clitic items and the pre-specification of the VerbMovement Parameter. Since the verb movement correlation is empirically justified by affecting the availability for the object of A’-positions, I will thus argue that the loss of verb movement in Romance languages is directly related to the emergence of clitic doubling constructions. Specifically, assuming that clitic doubling is related to the accessibility interpretation of objects (see Fischer & Rinke 2013), the loss of the information encoded in the different preverbal A’-positions can be recovered by clitic doubling constructions (see Navarro et al. 2017 and Fischer et al. 2019). In other words, the clitic doubling phenomenon has emerged as a “recovery mechanism” to repair the accessibility interpretation affected by the pre-specifications of the Verb Movement Parameter. In addition, by analyzing the grammatical effects associated with both parameters, I also identify a crucial difference between them: whereas the Verb Movement Parameter involves only formal features in the interactional scenario, thus affecting core properties of grammar, the Clitic Doubling Parameter, by contrast, encompasses a wider set of features, which seem to be associated to grammatical interfaces. This difference can also be related to different interactional properties, which, in turn, define different emergence scenarios. All this allows us to identify two kinds of parameters: (i) Core-parameters, whose emergence is exclusively subject to the three factors in language design; and (ii) Peripheral-parameters, whose emergence depends on prespecified Core-parameters and certain pre-stored items in the lexicon. Finally, since both kinds of parameters are defined in epigenetic terms, I propose adopting a perspective from below with respect to UG in keeping with Chomsky.

Betreuer: 
Prof. Dr. Susann Fischer (University of Hamburg) 
Prof. Dr. Kleanthes K. Grohmann (University of Cyprus) 

Forschungsinteressen:

• Sprachtheorie
• Syntaxtheorie
• Sprachvariation
• Sprachwandel
• Biolinguistik (Language Evolution)

Veröffentlichung

• (2020) Language design and parametric exaptation. Approaching the emergence of Clitic Doubling from below. https://ediss.sub.uni-hamburg.de/handle/ediss/9412
• (2019) “The Clitic Doubling Parameter: Development and Distribution of a Cyclic Change” With Fischer, Susann & Jorge Vega Vilanova. In Anne Breitbart et al. (eds): Cycles in Language Change Oxford: OUP.
• (2018). “Clitic Doubling and Language contact”. With Fischer, Susann & Jorge Vega. In Teresa Parodi (ed.): Referential properties of the Romance DP in the context of multilingualism, 87-102. Arbeitspapier 129. Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Konstanz.
• (2018) "The clitic doubling cycle. A diachronic reconstruction". With Vega Vilanova, Jorge & Susann Fischer.  In Gabriela Pană Dindelegan et al. (eds.): Romance Syntax. Comparative and diachronic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• (2017) "Reconstruyendo un ciclo: doblado de clíticos y gramaticalización en las lenguas romances". With Susann Fischer & Jorge Vega Vilanova. In Silvia Gumiel-Molina, Manuel Leonett & Isabel Pérez-Jiménez (eds.): Investigaciones actuales en Lingüística, Vol. III: Sintaxis, 111-126. Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alcalá.
• (2016) "Clitic Doubling restrictions in Leísta Spanish". With Mareike Neuhaus. In Fischer Susann & Mario Navarro (eds.): Clitic Doubling and other issues of the syntax-semantic interface in Romance DPs. Proceedings of the VII Nereus International Workshop. Arbeitspapier 128. Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Konstanz.
• (2015) “El verbo causativo hacer en el español loísta: nuevas perspectivas para la Nueva Gramática de la Lengua Española.” With Mihaela Marchis Moreno. In Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoromance 25: 183-196

Vorträge

• (2018) „The emergence of parameters: An interactional Turn.“ Paper presented at Learnability in a parametric world 1.10.2018. Workshop hosted by Romance Turn IX, 2018. Bucharest, 29-30 September 2018.
• (2017) “On the interactional nature of parameters or what the emergence of clitic doubling can tell us about linguistic variation”. Paper presented at XXXV Romanistentag. Universität Zürich, 7-12 October 2017
• (2016) “Parametric exaptation and the emergence of clitic doubling constructions” Paper presented in Final Workshop of the DFG-Project ‘Clitic Doubling across Romance’ Goethe-University (Frankfurt 3-4.11.2016).
• (2016) "The Clitic Doubling cycle: a diachronic reconstruction". With Fischer, S. & J. Vega Vilanova. Paper held at 18th Diachronic Generative Syntax conference. (Ghent 29.07-1.08. 2016).
• (2015) "Clitic Doubling in Romance: Evidence for a Cyclic Change." With Fischer, S. & J. Vega Vilanova. Communication presented at the Workshop on Romance Syntax. Comparative and Diachronic Perspectives. (Bucharest 27-28.11.2015)
• (2014) “Restricciones de Doblado de Clítico en español leísta”. With Mareike Neuhaus. Communication presented at the XV Coloquio Internacional de Lingüística Iberoromance (Rouen, 3-5.06.2015)
• (2014) “Clitic Doubling restrictions in leísta Spanish”. With Mareike Neuhaus. Communication presented at the workshop ‘Clitic Doubling and the Syntax/Semantic Interface in Romance DPs’ 7. -8. November 2014, Universität Hamburg (Hamburg, 7.11.2014)
• (2013) "Modular (re)organization and the emergence of syntax: Towards an evolutionary explanation of the human faculty of language". Forschungskolloquium für Doktoranden und Masterstudierende des Instituts für Romanistik an der Universität Hamburg (Hamburg, 16.06.2013).
• (2013) "Las variaciones leístas / loístas del español en el tratamiento del verbo hacer: Nuevas perspectivas para la NGLE, with Mihaela A. Marchis. Communication presented at 19º Hispanistentag (Münster, 20-24.03.2013).
• (2013) "Ensamble, economía y gramaticalización. Tres lecturas minimalistas acerca de la evolución del lenguaje". Communication presented at the “II Conferencia de Jóvenes Lingüistas”, University of Buenos Aires (Ciudad de Buenos Aires, 08.03.2013).
• (2013) "Emergencia sintáctica y evolución del lenguaje: Hacia un modelo de (re)organización modular". Academic exchange. Research course at the University of Buenos Aires (Ciudad de Buenos Aires, 13.03.2013).