Exploring the EM-only hypothesis

• 발행기관: 경희대학교 언어정보연구소
• 저자명: Kyoungmi Lee
• 간행물 정보: 『언어연구』제42권 제1호, 141~167쪽, 전체 27쪽
• 주제분류: 인문학 > 언어학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2025.03.31

국문 초록

This study critically examines Kitahara and Seely’s (2024) proposal for deriving the Duality of Semantics―the distinction between propositional and clausal domains―through a strengthened version of Minimal Yield (MY) and a expanded definition of Accessibility. Their framework, refining Chomsky’s (2023a) box system, eliminates the explicit distinction between External Merge (EM) and Internal Merge (IM), arguing that IM occurs only once to delineate the two thought domains. While this approach reduces reliance on stipulative distinctions, it raises some conceptual challenges, including the fixed composition of the workspace (WS), the necessity of IM, and look-ahead problems inherent in finite WS configurations. To address these issues, we propose an EM-only system that eliminates IM entirely, thereby simplifying derivation while adhering to minimalist principle. In this system, both arguments and non-arguments are introduced via EM, remaining accessible to phase heads for interface interpretation. By employing dynamic lexical selection during derivation, this approach avoids look-ahead problems and aligns with the Markovian property of syntactic computation, which excludes reliance on prior stages of derivation. The EM-only system, independent of IM, offers a simpler, more parsimonious framework for syntactic theory while maintaining the capacity to account for diverse syntactic phenomena.

목차

1. Introduction

2. Minimal Yield (MY) and accessibility

3. The EM-only system

4. Conclusion

References

키워드

Merge Duality of Semantics External Merge Internal Merge thought-domains workspace