This chapter introduces a way to derive parameters from an independently needed factor: how many features a lexical entry contains. It is an unavoidable fact that some words express more syntactic features, some express fewer syntactic features. It would thus be a major progression if we could derive the entire array of syntactic variation from just that. This chapter shows that it can be done, in principle, covering all major classes of syntactic variation.This answers for the first time the question of what a possible parameter is, and how to derive parameters without stipulated markers dedicated to triggering syntax (i.e. without postulating properties such as EPP, strength, ‘I need a specifier’, or any other feature dedicated to triggering syntactic variation). Deriving syntactic difference from ‘how big the lexical entries are’ is made possible by phrasal syntax, i.e. a grammatical architecture which starts with single features, merges them into lexically‐sized phrases in syntax, and only then attempts to spell out those phrases.