Minimalist tree languages are closed under intersection with recognizable tree languages

Abstract

Minimalist grammars are a mildly context-sensitive grammar framework within which analyses in mainstream chomskyian syntax can be faithfully represented. Here it is shown that both the derivation tree languages and derived tree languages of minimalist grammars are closed under intersection with regular tree languages. This allows us to conclude that taking into account the possibility of 'semantic crashes' in the standard approach to interpreting minimalist structures does not alter the strong generative capacity of the formalism. In addition, the addition to minimalist grammars of complexity filters is easily shown using a similar proof method to not change the class of derived tree languages. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.