Lectures in the Minimalist Program

The lectures consider the progression of 'Merge to Move'-beginning with Principles of Locality which operate over an array of Binding constraints, then to combine Members (a, b) (an external merge) which establishes an unordered Set {a, b}, then to Local Move operations (internal merge) which establishes an ordered Pair >. From these sequences of external to internal merge-operations, an array of syntactic phenomena come into view, each of which enters some form of an explanatory equation, as argued for by Minimalist pursuits. As a broad sweeping 'pedagogical device', we peer into myriad aspects behind Lasnik's 'Anti-locality' Condition. What does 'locality' exactly mean here (c-command)? How is it that adjacency is banned from recursive syntax (X-bar)? The condition stipulates that if an item gets displaced (internal merge), it cannot move into its existing phrase, but rather must expand a higher/functional phrase. How does this condition affect movement (e.g., wh-movement, head-to-head movement) regarding 'Merge over Move', as well as notions of transfer/spell-out involving phrasal projection? Other topics include Merge over Move, Phase-base theory, Light verb constructs, VP-shells, Principles of economy of movement, and Reasons for movement. The lectures contained within this coursebook are designed as a graduate-student guide to general issues surrounding the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995).