ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes Merge in its simplest, strictly binary form, it is nonetheless the case that a category can have more than one sister. It addresses the cross-linguistic variation of complementizer-trace effects and the apparent problem of undergeneration that the analysis faces given that it deduces complementizer-trace effects from deep, i.e. unparameterizable, principles. In a series of recent papers, Epstein, Kitahara, and Seely (EKS) have proposed precisely this form of simplest Merge. Unlike Chomsky's Merge, which allows counter-cyclic replacement, simplest Merge cannot perform replacement. The chapter overviews the development of the simplest conception of Merge from X'-theory through bare phrase structure in the sense of Noam Chomsky. The chapter gave brief preliminary analyses of a cross-linguistically variant range of grammatical complementizer-trace phenomena including the que-qui alternation, pro-drop languages like Italian, adverb that-trace phenomena, and so-called Empty Category Principle asymmetries.
