{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.04642525533890436, 'fraction_numerical': 0.009285051067780872, 'mean_word_length': 5.056179775280899, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Diachronic change and feature instability

This chapter focuses on diachronic changes of obligatory control (OC) constructions in Romanian. We argue that the setting for the OC parameter has remained constant since the 16th century, but that the values of the features associated with the C/T/Agr system show systematic change. Specifically, Romanian OC follows the Balkan paradigm (i.e., truncated/FinP clause) which is under tension to accommodate the Romance morphology with Force features that it employs. This pressure results in a continuous cycle, from syncretic to split and, again, to remerged C. This process affects Fin, the only C head available to Romanian OC, alongside constant flux of the T/Agr specifications (i.e., inflected versus uninflected). These findings support the Borer-Chomsky Conjecture (BCC) that sees variation as being restricted to formal features of functional heads (Baker 2008), namely, [+/- Agr] of C/T, while aligning with Biberauer and Walkden’s (2015) observation that diachronic syntax has shifted from the “macro” to the “micro” level.