Minimalist Derivations of Word Order

[Cho95]

Verifies that Minimalist Merge derivations model English SVO order: the phonological yield of a transitive derivation comes out subject-verb-object. The transitive derivation is defined locally (chronological discipline: Chomsky 1995 cannot import Adger 2003 where the canonical Minimalism English-derivation lexicon now lives).

def Chomsky1995.verbToSelStack (v : English.Predicates.Verbal.VerbEntry) : Minimalist.SelStack

Map a verb's complement type to its selectional stack: each c-selected argument is one Cat feature consumed by complement Merge; nominal arguments are .D (the DP hypothesis). Folded in from the former Syntax/Minimalist/FromFragments.lean (its only consumer).

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def Chomsky1995.verbToSO (v : English.Predicates.Verbal.VerbEntry) (id : ℕ) : Minimalist.SyntacticObject

A VerbEntry as a SyntacticObject leaf (Cat = .V, selStack from complementType).

Equations

• Chomsky1995.verbToSO v id = Minimalist.SO.mkLeafPhon Minimalist.Cat.V (Chomsky1995.verbToSelStack v) v.form3sg id

def Chomsky1995.nounToSO (n : English.Nouns.NounEntry) (id : ℕ) : Minimalist.SyntacticObject

A NounEntry as a leaf: proper names project as .D, common nouns as bare .N.

Equations

• Chomsky1995.nounToSO n id = if n.proper = true then Minimalist.SO.mkLeafPhon Minimalist.Cat.D [] n.formSg id else Minimalist.SO.mkLeafPhon Minimalist.Cat.N [] n.formSg id

def Chomsky1995.john_sees_mary : Minimalist.SO.Derivation

"John sees Mary" as a Minimalist Merge derivation: see's complement is Mary (emR), then John is added as specifier (emL).

Equations

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theorem Chomsky1995.models_svo_word_order : " ".intercalate john_sees_mary.surfacePhon = "John sees Mary"

The phonological yield of john_sees_mary is the SVO string "John sees Mary": the Minimalist derivation (built by emR then emL over verbToSO/nounToSO) linearizes subject-verb-object via the derivation-grounded computable externalization (SO.Derivation.surfacePhon).