Internal pair-merge: The missing mode of movement

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Abstract

In this brief article, I point out the predicted existence of a second mode of movement (alongside Internal Set-Merge) that should be sanctioned under Chomsky's Strong Minimalist Thesis, namely Internal Pair-Merge, essentially yielding 'movement by adjunction'. I then suggest one possible area in which the computational system makes use of this mode of movement-namely, it allows us to implement Agree-less Move to phase heads (aka 'pure EPP-movement', or Chomsky's (2007, 2008) Edge-Feature movement) without compromising the Activity Condition, thus potentially yielding a truly minimalist, narrow-syntactic analysis of optional, 'discourse-driven', 'stylistic' movement operations like topicalization and focus-movement. Not only does Internal Pair-Merge emerge as a theoretical possibility implied by the SMT (section 1), but it is also a device that is fully exploited by the computational system (section 2).

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APA

Richards, M. (2009). Internal pair-merge: The missing mode of movement. Catalan Journal of Linguistics, 8, 55–73. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/catjl.141

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