ABSTRACT
If something distinguishes the Minimalist Program of Chomsky (1995b, 2000) from other models within the principles-and-parameters framework, it is the assumption that the language faculty is an optimal solution to legibility conditions imposed by external systems. Under this perspective, a main desideratum of the program is to derive substantive principles from interface (“bare output”) conditions, and formal principles from economy conditions. It is thus natural that part of the minimalist agenda is devoted to reevaluating the theoretical apparatus developed within the principles-and-parameters framework, with the goal of explaining on more solid conceptual grounds the wealth of empirical material uncovered in past decades. This chapter takes some steps toward this goal by deriving Condition-on-Extraction-Domains (CED) effects (in the sense of Huang 1982) in consonance with these general minimalist guidelines.
