Minimalist program and its fundamental improvements in syntactic theory: evidence from agreement asymmetry in standard Arabic NASSER AL-HORAIS Collage of Arabic Language and Social Studies P.O. Box 6611, Buryadh Qassim University Saudi Arabia E-mail: [email protected] MINIMALIST PROGRAM AND ITS PROGRAMA MINIMALISTA Y SUS PROGRAMME MINIMALISTE ET SES FUNDAMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS IN MEJORAS FUNDAMENTALES EN LA AMÉLIORATIONS FONDAMENTALES DE LA SYNTACTIC THEORY: EVIDENCE FROM TEORÍA SINTÁCTICA: EVIDENCIA DE THÉORIE SYNTAXIQUE: LEÇONS À TIRER AGREEMENT ASYMMETRY IN STANDARD ASIMETRÍA EN EL ACUERDO ÁRABE ACCORD ASYMÉTRIE DANS L'ARABE ARABIC ESTÁNDAR STANDARD ABSTRACT: The Minimalist Program RESUMEN: El Programa Minimalista RÉSUMÉ: Le programme minimaliste is a major line of inquiry that has been constituye una de las líneas est une ligne de recherche majeure developing inside Generative Grammar fundamentales de investigación de la élaborée par chomsky (1993. 1995), since the early nineties, when it was Gramática Generativa que ha elle s’est développée au sein de la proposed by Chomsky (1993, 1995). evolucionado desde que fuera grammaire générative depuis les At the outset, Chomsky (1998: 5) propuesta por Chomsky (1993, années 90 . N. Chomsky présente le presented Minimalist Program as a 1995). Si bien en su día, Chomsky Pogramme minimaliste comme un program, not as a theory, but today, (1998 : 5) lo presentó como programme et non une théorie; mais the Minimalist Program lays out a very programa y no como teoría, en la aujourd’hui, le Pogramme minimaliste specific view of the basis of syntactic actualidad el Programa Minimalista qui jette un regard spécifique sur les grammar that, when compared to representa una visión muy específica fondements de la structure de la other formalisms, is often taken to de las bases de la sintaxis que con grammaire, et comparé à d’autres look very much like a theory. The frecuencia se interpreta como teoría formalismes, est considéré comme une prime concern of this paper, however, cuando se la compara con otros théorie . Néanmoins le souci is to provide a comprehensive and formalismos. Este artículo tiene primordial de cet article est de accessible introduction to the art of como objetivo proporcionar una présenter une introduction the minimalist approach to show its introducción al arte del enfoque compréhensive et accessible de la fundamental improvements in minimalista detallada y a su vez littérature minimaliste pour montrer syntactic theory. And in order to accesible, para mostrar las mejoras ses apports fondamentaux pour la evidence the significance of these que ha efectuado en el campo de la théorie syntaxique. Et pour faire fundamental improvements, the teoría sintáctica. Para demostrar la ressortir la signification de ces apports current paper provides a minimalist importancia de dichos avances, este le présent article présente une analysis to account for agreement and artículo presenta un análisis approche minimaliste pour rendre word-order asymmetry in Standard minimalista de la concordancia y de compte de l’accord et de l’asymétrie de Arabic. This fresh minimalist account la asimetría en el árabe estándar. l’ordre des mots en arabe standard . meets the challenges (to the basic Este nuevo análisis proporciona Cette nouvelle analyse minimaliste tenets of syntactic theory) posed by respuestas a las preguntas que, en embrasse les défis (aux concepts pre-minimalist analyses. relación con los pilares de la teoría cardinaux de la théorie syntaxique) sintáctica, quedaban sin contestar rencontrés dans les analyses en análisis previos al enfoque préminimalistes. minimalista. KEY WORDS: Economy Principles; PALABRAS CLAVES: Principios de MOTS CLÉS: Principes d’économie, Merge; Agree; EPP features; Feature Economía; Ensamble; Concordancia; fusionne, accorde, traits de principes Inheritance, word-order; Agreement rasgos PPE; herencia de rasgos; de projection étendue, héritage de Asymmetry; null subjects. orden de palabras; asimetría de la traits, ordre des mots, accord concordancia; sujetos nulos. asymétrique, sujets nuls. SUMMARY: 1.Introduction. 2. The SUMARIO: 1.Introducción. 2. El SOMMAIRE: 1.Introduction. 2. L Innovation of the MP. 3. Syntactic Innovación de la MP. 3. Derivación 'innovation de la MP. 3. Dérivation Derivation. 4. The EPP feature. 5. sintáctica. 4. El EPP característica. syntaxique. 4. Le PPE fonction. 5. Phases and Feature Inheritance. 6. 5. Fases y herencia de Phases et héritage Feature. 6. Minimalism and Agreement características. 6. Minimalismo y el Minimalisme et Accord asymétrie en Asymmetry in Arabic. 7. A Pre- Acuerdo Asimetría en árabe. 7. Un arabe. 7. Une analyse pré-minimaliste: minimalist analysis: Spec-Head análisis pre-minimalista: Spec-Head Spec-tête accord. 8. Une analyse Agreement. 8. An Alternative Acuerdo. 8. Un análisis alternativo alternative minimaliste. 9. Accord minimalist analysis. 9. Arabic minimalista. 9. Acuerdo en árabe arabe chez les sujets nuls et théorie Agreement in Null Subjects and Sujetos nulos y Teoría Acuerdo. 10. Accord. 10. conclusion. Agreement Theory. 10. Conclusion Conclusión. Fecha de Recepción 27/04/2012 Fecha de Revisión 29/10/2012 Fecha de Aceptación 30/10/2012 Fecha de Publicación 01/12/2012 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25267/Pragmalinguistica.2012.i20.01 pragmalingïüística 9 20 (2012) 8-40 Minimalist program and its fundamental improvements in syntactic theory: evidence from agreement asymmetry in standard Arabic NASSER AL-HORAIS 1. INTRODUCTION The Minimalist Program (MP, henceforward) explores the hypothesis that the language faculty is optimal realization of interface conditions, and thus, the strongest minimalist thesis is that language L is an optimal solution to interface conditions imposed on FL by performance systems, and the linguistic expressions generated by L must be legible to these external systems if they are usable (Chomsky 2004). The MP is “a non-redundant and optimal system in the sense that particular phenomena are not over-determined by linguistic principles and that linguistic system is subject to economy restrictions with a least effort flavor” (Hornstein et al 2005: 14). In other words, this new approach strives to create a model of language that eliminates unnecessary steps in the representation of the derivation of a sentence (Brown 1999). Accordingly, the strongest minimalist thesis is that language L is an optimal solution to interface conditions imposed on the Faculty of Language by performance systems, and the linguistic expressions generated by L must be legible to these external systems if they are usable (Chomsky 2001). The current paper mainly aims to give a clear sketch picture of the key premises of the MP, considering in this regard three topics which will be spread over three sections. (i) Section 2 outlines the most features distinguishing the MP from its predecessors, namely Government and Binding theory (GB), and Principles and Parameters theory (PPT). The reason is to show that the MP is motivated not only by the search for the explanatory adequacy, but also for a certain level of formal simplicity. (ii) Section 3 considers ‘the structure-building computation’ that is viewed as a series of a number of operations which are considered to be the heart and soul of the MP. It consists of a small set of basic operations: Select Merge, Agree, Move and Transfer. (iii) Sections 4 & 5 discusse some new ideas articulated recently by Chomsky such as changing the function of movement and the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) feature, or as proposing new theories such as Phases and Feature Inheritance in order to determine the least “costly” derivation and reduce the computational complexity. the rest of this paper is devoted to analyzing the agreement asymmetry system in Standard Arabic under the minimalist assumptions, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Qassim University for supporting this work. I extend my thanks to Anders Holmberg and Jeffrey Pool for insightful comments, suggestions and discussions on an early version of this paper. Errors are mine. 10 Minimalist program and its fundamental improvements in syntactic theory: evidence from agreement asymmetry in standard Arabic NASSER AL-HORAIS in order to prove that the MP handles better the problems found with previous generative analyses of agreement in Arabic, and this strongly gives an example of several fundamental improvements in syntactic theory made by the MP since nineties until today. 2. THE INNOVATION OF THE MP 2.1. ECONOMY PRINCIPLES The MP is distinguished from its predecessors by its 'derivational concept' which provides principles for how an analysis is constructed, rather than providing filtering conditions that constrain output representations (Weinberg, 1999). The main derivational constraints are the so-called ‘Economy Principles, first made explicit in Chomsky (1991), which are considered to be the cornerstone of the MP. As the MP seeks to determine the least “costly” derivation and reduce the computational complexity, it should provide principles for how an analysis is constructed, rather than providing filtering conditions that constrain output representations (Weinberg, 1999). To make this idea clear, Hornstein et al (2005: 8) describe principles of economy as the practice of “placing a premium on least-effort notions as natural sources of grammatical principles”. As pointed out by Motut (2010), the hypothesis that Universal Grammar (UG) itself is based on principles that favour more economical operations,