This paper addresses the following questions: is (external) merge, the binary operation that combines two elements into a constituent in every variant of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky, 1993, 1995 and related works), an unconstrained operation? If so, what avoid generating ill-formed structures? I will argue here for a simple functional / lexical constraint on Merge, assuming a possible principled binary opposition for the items which enter the syntactic derivation. I will basically follow Kayne (2009), who assumes that the class of nouns (or L-roots) is the only open (lexical) class in grammar, updating the intuitions of Hale and Keyser (1993). This proposal leads to interesting structural and typological consequences.

Constraint on merge: The roots of the lexical/functional divide / Franco, L. - In: THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES. - ISSN 1799-2591. - STAMPA. - 2:(2012), pp. 1-5. [10.4304/tpls.2.1.1-5]

Constraint on merge: The roots of the lexical/functional divide

FRANCO, LUDOVICO
2012

Abstract

This paper addresses the following questions: is (external) merge, the binary operation that combines two elements into a constituent in every variant of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky, 1993, 1995 and related works), an unconstrained operation? If so, what avoid generating ill-formed structures? I will argue here for a simple functional / lexical constraint on Merge, assuming a possible principled binary opposition for the items which enter the syntactic derivation. I will basically follow Kayne (2009), who assumes that the class of nouns (or L-roots) is the only open (lexical) class in grammar, updating the intuitions of Hale and Keyser (1993). This proposal leads to interesting structural and typological consequences.
2012
2
1
5
Franco, L
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Utilizza questo identificatore per citare o creare un link a questa risorsa: https://hdl.handle.net/2158/1007617
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