Speculations on Typological Variation from a Third Factor Perspective

This paper proposes a third factor principle in the sense of Chomsky (2005) that can underlie typological variation across languages, namely, ‘Maximize Externalization,’ which results in minimizing the amount of Spell-Out, thereby reducing computational complexity. The working of this principle is associated with the universal Spec-head-complement word order hypothesis of Kayne (1994), regarded as the SVO hypothesis here, without the need for the head-parameter. I first show that well-known typical head-final languages like Korean and Dutch can be subjected to the SVO hypothesis. I then motivate the proposed third factor principle through the well known Extended Projection Principle and the Subject in-situ Generalization phenomena. I further discuss diverse externalization phenomena from several languages to confirm the principle. Lastly, speculations are made in an attempt to deal with externalization differences in size and mode among languages.