Séminaire de Recherche en Linguistique

Mereological Syntax

The core structure building operation in minimalist syntax (Merge) constructs sets, where the arguments of the Merge operation become members of a newly constructed set. This talk argues that sets are not the right data structure for syntax, and give rise to serious theoretical problems. In its place, I develop a theory where structure is built by an operation Subjoin, that replaces Merge, and that constructs mereological objects; these have parts rather than members, and I argue that this small but radical change has many conceptual advantages. The empirical ramifications of this theory are then explored, including how it impacts on our understanding of locality, especially in deriving the edge property of successive cyclic movement.