Constituent Order in Minimalist Syntax, Universals and Parameters. (VP-Specifier and VP-Complement Order)

Abstract

Natural Languages adopt a variety of structural strategies and architectures in ordering syntactic constituents. We will try in this paper to explain how these strategies and architectures are explained within the Minimalist Program framework. According to this framework, the most significant parametric differences between natural languages in constituent word order are widely and strongly limited to lexical differences. They are specifically attributed to the N-features and V-features of lexical items that occupy the functional category nodes, basically elements belonging to the functional categories Agreement and Tense: “The N-features are those that are checked off against a DP in [Spec, AGRP] (or, potentially, [Spec, TP])”, and “the V-features are those that are checked off against a V that adjoins to a functional head”.

Keywords

• Minimalist Program, Constituent Order, Lexical Differences, N-features, V-features, Functional Categories.