1.2. Sentence derivation within the Minimalist
Program
This section presents how structure derivation proceeds within
MP such that this one can converge at the interfaces, point of checking of the
sentence's legibility. Emphasis is laid on the significance of phases, Merge
and feature checking within the Probe-Goal framework in the MP architecture.
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The derivational procedure within MP starts with the mental
Lexicon, which is the storage organ or warehouse of all the lexical items in
the language. Lexical items are selected from the lexicon to constitute a
numeration. The latter comprises all the lexical items extracted from the
lexicon for the derivation of a sentence. Following Tabe and Tamanji (2015),
the numeration is important because it is where violation of Inclusiveness
Condition is checked appropriately. Given Inclusiveness Condition, the
numeration constitutes the only lexemes available for the syntactic component.
It bars the introduction of new categories into the syntax in the course of the
derivation other than those from the numeration. Examples of such category are
traces (a «kind of footprint» of a moved or displaced category from
one position of the clause to another) and bar levels. Because they are not
constituents of the numeration, their introduction into the syntax violates
Inclusiveness Condition. Furthermore, Aboh (2010: 19) argues «that strict
application of the Inclusiveness Condition requires that core notions of
information structure (interrogative force, topic, and focus) project in
syntax.» The next derivational step holds within the syntax wherein three
operations take place: Merge, Move and Agree.
1.2.1. Merge
Merge is the syntactic-building operation within MP. Syntactic
structure is built from bottom-up fashion via Merge. According to Chomsky
(2000:101), it is one of the three major operations which operate in the
syntactic component. Merge operation is an optimal solution for language to be
accessible to the Sensorimotor (SM) and Conceptual Intentional (CI) systems
with which it must interface. It can be internal or external.
External Merge, also referred to as pure Merge by
Chomsky (2000), is an operation which consists in combining, in a pairwise
fashion, syntactic objects of the numeration to form a larger constituent. A
lexical item has a property such as edge feature that permits it to be merged.
When a lexical item X merges with a syntactic object Y, it forms the pair {X,
Y} where X is the head and Y is its complement as shown below:
(1)
XP DP
Merge (X, Y) = merge (the, book) =
X Y D N
the book
This is strongly supported by Chomsky's «no-tampering
condition» formulated as
follows:
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«Merge of X and Y leaves the two SOs unchanged. If
so, then Merge of X and Y can be taken to yield the set {X, Y}, the simplest
possibility worth considering. Merge cannot break up X or Y, or add new
features to them» (Chomsky 2008:138).
External Merge comes free and yields generalized argument
structure and Internal Merge yields discourse-related properties such as old
information and specificity, along with scope effects at the CI interface.
As for Internal Merge, it re-arranges elements in the syntax
by determining a new position. A single syntactic constituent (a phrase or
lexical item) is associated with two or more syntactic positions. Internal
Merge is operation Move under the copy theory of movement and it
creates copies. It is free as external merge and it has been regarded by
Chomsky as an imperfection of language that has to be postulated as an
unexplained property of UG unless it can be motivated in some principled way.
At the phonetic interface, internal merge yields the displacement phenomenon.
This operation is illustrated below:
(2) a. What does John buy ?
b. CP
DP C'
C° TP
DP T'
T° VP
V° DP
What does John does buy what
Internal merge
As one can observe in (2b), what internally merges
from its position of complement of V° to the specifier position of CP.
Internal merge is another label of operation move which has a new
conception within the minimalist framework.
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