Examining the Minimalist Program: Merge, Transfer and Parameters

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26770172
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Science
• Principal Investigator: Obata Miki 東京理科大学, 理学部第二部教養, 准教授 (80581694)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 統語論 / 生成文法 / 極小主義

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The research project mainly focused on the following two issues: [1] how the operation Merge is applied in the human linguistic computation and how the operation Transfer sends syntactic objects formed by Merge to the interfaces, and also [2] how cross-linguistic variation can be recaptured without appeal to the traditional concept parameters. With respect to [1], I cast light on the sets {XP,YP} and {H,H} by examining their generation and labeling. With respect to [2], I suggested through comparing various kinds of languages including Cape Verdean Creole that cross-linguistic variation can be explained by appeal to the order of rule-application.

Free Research Field

統語論