| description | Jan-Wouter Zwart. 2009. Prospects for top-down derivation. Catalan Journal of Linguistics 8, 161-187. Special issue Spelling out Universal Grammar, Jordi Fortuny Andreu and Angel J. Gallego, eds. |
| type | Reviewed journal article. |
| ID | 2009e | 138 | November 8, 2008 |
| origin | Paper presented at the syntax workshop Merge: the derivation of structure and order, Groningen, June 5, 2008, and prepared for publication in a special issue of Catalan Journal of Linguistics on minimalist syntactic theory. The general idea of having merge derive asymmetric structures features in a number of papers and presentations since 2003, but the idea of couching that in a top-down derivational frame is new to this paper. |
| keywords | merge; top-down derivation; asymmetry; layered derivations; movement |
| summary | This article explores a model of grammar involving top-down derivations, where each step ("split-merge") yields an asymmetric pair of elements relevant to the expression of order, information, and grammatical features. These derivations are inevitably layered, in the sense that the output of a previous derivation may appear as an atom in the numeration for the next derivation. It is suggested that opacity effects follow from the layering of derivations, not from conditions on movement. |
| related |
full text Presentations: Leiden, 12/2008; Merge, 06/2008; Crash-Proof Grammars, 03/2008; Princeton, 02/2008; TIN, 02/2008; Harvard, 05/2007; ACTL, 03/2007; Tilburg, 10/2004 |