Derivation and Explanation in the Minimalist Program

Derivation and Explanation in the Minimalist Program presents accessible, cutting–edge research on an enduring and fundamental question confronting all linguistic inquiry – the respective roles of derivation and representation.

The volume explores ways in which the Minimalist perspective on transformational rules and their iterative application facilitates deeper explanation than is possible within Government and Binding theory. Through discussion of a wide range of phenomena, the majority of papers in the volume present arguments in favor of derivational approaches, although alternative, representational perspectives are also included.

Derivation and Explanation in the Minimalist Program is essential reading for anyone interested in the foundational yet contemporary issue of derivation versus representation and its relation to current Minimalist method, analysis, and the quest for explanation.

1. Introduction: Derivation and explanation: Samuel David Epstein & T. Daniel Seely.

2. On the status of representations and derivations: Michael Brody.

3. Eliminating Labels: Chris Collins.

4. Rule applications as cycles in a level–free syntax: Samuel David Epstein & T. Daniel Seely.

5. Crash–proof syntax: John Frampton & Samuel Gutmann.

6. Reprojections: Norbert Hornstein & Juan Uriagereka.

7. Pronouns and their antecedents: Richard Kayne.

8. Scrambling, Case, and Interpretability: Hisatsugu Kitahara.

9. Resumption, successive cyclicity, and the locality of operations: James McCloskey.

10. Movement in a top–down derivation: Norvin Richards.

11. Arguments for a Derivational approach to syntactic relations based on clitics: Esther Torrego.

12. Issues relating to a derivational theory of binding: Jan–Wouter Zwart.

Samuel David Epstein is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. He is co–founder of Syntax: A Journal of Theoretical, Experimental and Interdisciplinary Research and has published widely on syntactic theory. He is the author of Traces and Their Antecedents (1991); co–author of A Derivational Approach to Syntactic Relations (with E. Groat, R. Kawashima, and H. Kitahara, 1998); and co–editor of Working Minimalism (with N. Hornstein, 1999).

T. Daniel Seely is Associate Professor of Linguistics at Eastern Michigan University. His work on syntactic theory has appeared in journals such as Linguistic Inquiry and Word, and he is a former moderator of The Linguist List.

‘In this outstanding collection, leading researchers explore ways in which the rich, complex, and apparently varied phenomena of the languages of the world can be explained in terms of uniform principles of optimal design and external conditions that must be satisfied if language is to be usable at all. Following several different paths, these highly original, carefully crafted, and challenging essays open important new directions for research into some of the most fascinating issues of the study of language, with far–reaching implications beyond.’ Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology <!––end––>