1.2.4. Phases
Within the precedent framework (principles and parameters
theory), the interpretive interface levels LF (Logical Form) and PF (Phonetic
or Phonological Form) were accessed once through the single application of the
operation Spell-Out. In the MP, linguistic interfaces are fed by the operation
Transfer. Going by what Lasnik and al (2005) claim, Transfer is the
`super-operation' that feeds the modular interfaces, made up of Transfer to LF
(Interpret) and Transfer to PF (Spell-Out). The relevant unit of the derivation
subject to Transfer is the phase. It operates more than once during the
derivation: at the end of each phase and at the end of the overall
derivation.
A phase is the very local unit for computation. In fact,
Chomsky (2001) proposes that `the derivation of expression proceeds by phase'
in order to ensure a `reduction of computational burden'. He hammers that
phases should be as small as possible to minimize memory. He also suggests that
phases are `propositional' in nature, and include CP and ?P. His rationale for
taking CP and v*P as phases is that CP behaves as a complete clausal complex
containing essential elements of the clause (e.g., the force markers, topic,
focus markers, and so on) and v*P represents a complete thematic (argument
structure) complex, including a subject in a specifier position. Thus, a phase
contains only the lexical array that is needed for its building and constitutes
a local computational domain for narrow syntax. Once a phase is completed, it
undergoes Transfer and becomes impenetrable for further computation. Given the
Phase Impenetrability Condition (PIC, Chomsky 2004:108) formulated as follows:
«At the phase ZP containing phase HP, the domain of H is not
accessible to operations, but only the edge of HP»; what is frozen
and become inaccessible to further operations is the domain of the phase head.
Accordingly, only the edge remains accessible and this one includes the
phase
24
head itself and its specifiers. To put things differently, the
complement of the head of a phase is out of reach for further computations, but
its edge is accessible to operations like agreement and movement as the phase
heads C and v* contain two types of features: Agree features (Ô-features)
and the Edge feature. The latter is the current version of the
«generalized EPP» of Chomsky (2000, 2005, 2007), and triggers
movements to the specifier position of the phase head.
Chomsky (2008) suggests that all syntactic operations are
driven solely by phase heads. What this implies is that T is not a phase head,
nor a probe. The operations apparently driven by T are in fact triggered by the
phase head C, which is above T. Chomsky's argument is based on the conceptual
consideration of language design. Thus, the Agree- and Tense-features are
inherited by T from C, the phase head as well as the phase head v* transmits
its Inheritance features (accusative Case and Ô-features) to V as
illustrated below:
(4)
a. CP/?P
Spec C'/?'
C/? TP/VP
Spec T'/I'
Inheritance T/V
After having presented briefly the minimalist architecture,
the next section discusses some approaches to serial verb constructions.
| 
