PARAMETER SETTING WITHIN A SOCIALLY REALISTIC LINGUISTICS

This article considers the theoretical and practical relationship betw een core linguistics and sociolinguistics in relation to the emergence of Principles and Parameters Theory. Parameters were introduced into core Chomskyan linguistics in an effort to account for variation betwe en languages. However, as we argue -and as has long been known in soci olinguistics -languages (French, Italian etc.) are social rather than abstract products. In this sense, core linguistics may need to pay mor e attention than it has in the past to aspects of actual variation in order to understand the limits and range of parameters. Thus we argue that dialects of languages in themselves have parameters, and as such may be defined within parametric limits. Here we believe there is some thing of interest to sociolinguists, in terms both of structural defin itions and of overall historical development. In general, then, while variation has always been central to sociolinguistics, it is now centr al, in one sense, to core linguistics; and here we have the opportunit y to explore ways in which sociolinguistics and core linguistics may r elate to each other in their interest in variation. (Parameters; varia tion; dialect; Belfast; Ireland).