ABSTRACT
The previous chapter offered an overview of transformational generative grammar and the minimalist program, allowing us to examine some of their strengths and weaknesses. T-G grammar was characterized as “formalistic” because it employs a set of rigid rules that must operate in an equally rigid sequence to produce grammatical sentences. Although the MP is different in many respects, it, too, is formalistic: It has fewer rules, but they operate in much the same fashion as T-G rules.
