Minimalist Inquiries: The Framework

Abstract

An exploration of the design specifications & architecture of the minimalist program leads to a proposed refined version that disallows categories without interpretable features, eg AGR & semantically null determiners, as speculated in Chomsky (1995). Natural reduction of the complexity of operations is achieved by limiting basic operations to Merge & Agree & restricting access to universal features via a four-step derivation procedure in which a language (1) selects a subset F of universal features, (2) accesses the lexicon once to assemble elements of F & (3) selects a lexical array, & (4) without reference to F maps the lexical array to an expression consisting of phonetic & semantic instructions. Derivation proceeds cyclically with respect to lexical subarrays. Move is a last-resort operation, as it accommodates pied piping & is more complex than the combination of Merge & Agree, each of which therefore preempt Move; Procrastinate & the notion of strength are superseded. Selectional & structural properties are defined for the core functional categories: complementizer, tense, & the transitive light verb head. Although real imperfections are expected in a biological system, by pursuing the strongest minimalist thesis holding language to be an optimal system, apparent imperfect properties of language may turn out to be part of an optimal solution. 89 References. J. Hitchcock