Editing Minimalist program (section)

== Conceptual framework ==
{{see also|Biolinguistics}}

=== Goals and assumptions ===
Minimalism is an approach developed with the goal of understanding the nature of language. It models a speaker's knowledge of language as a computational system with one basic operation, namely Merge. Merge combines expressions taken from the lexicon in a successive fashion to generate representations that characterize [[I-Language]], understood to be the internalized intensional knowledge state as represented in individual speakers. By hypothesis, I-language—also called [[universal grammar]]—corresponds to the initial state of the human language faculty in individual human development.

Minimalism is reductive in that it aims to identify which aspects of human language—as well the computational system that underlies it—are conceptually necessary. This is sometimes framed as questions relating to '''perfect design''' (Is the design of human language perfect?) and '''optimal [[computation]]''' (Is the computational system for human language optimal?)<ref name=":13" /> According to Chomsky, a human natural language is not optimal when judged based on how it functions, since it often contains ambiguities, garden paths, etc. However, it may be optimal for interaction with the systems that are internal to the mind.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chomsky |first=Noam |editor-first1=Adriana |editor-first2=Luigi |editor-last1=Belletti |editor-last2=Rizzi |date=2002-10-10 |title=On Nature and Language |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511613876 |chapter=An interview on minimalism |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511613876|isbn=9780521815482 }}</ref>

Such questions are informed by a set of background assumptions, some of which date back to the earliest stages of generative grammar:<ref name=":8">{{Cite book|last1=Freidin|first1=Robert|url=http://oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199549368.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199549368-e-001|title=Some Roots of Minimalism in Generative Grammar|last2=Lasnik|first2=Howard|date=2011-03-03|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199549368.013.0001}}</ref>

# Language is a form of '''cognition'''. There is a [[Innateness hypothesis|language faculty]] (FL) that interacts with other [[Cognition|cognitive systems]]; this accounts for why humans acquire language.
# Language is a '''computational''' system. The language faculty consists of a computational system (C<sub>HL</sub>) whose initial state (S<sub>0</sub>) contains [[Invariant (mathematics)|invariant]] [[principles and parameters]].
# [[Language acquisition]] consists of '''acquiring a [[lexicon]]''' and '''fixing the [[parameter]] values''' of the target language.
# Language generates an '''[[Infinity|infinite]] set of expressions''' given as a sound-meaning pair (π, λ).
# Syntactic computation '''interfaces with phonology''': π corresponds to [[phonetic form]] (PF), the [[Interface (computing)|interface]] with the articulatory-perceptual (A-P) performance system, which includes articulatory [[speech production]] and acoustic [[speech perception]].
# Syntactic computation '''interfaces with semantics''': λ corresponds to [[Logical form (linguistics)|logical form]] (LF), the interface with the conceptual-intentional (C-I) performance system, which includes conceptual structure and intentionality.
# Syntactic computations are '''fully interpreted''' at the relevant interface: (π, λ) are interpreted at the PF and LF interfaces as instructions to the A-P and C-I performance systems.
# Some aspects of language are '''invariant'''. In particular, the computational system (i.e. syntax) and LF are invariant.
#Some aspects of language show '''variation'''. In particular, variation reduces to [[Ferdinand de Saussure|Saussurean]] arbitrariness, parameters and the mapping to PF.
#The theory of grammar meets the criterion of '''conceptual necessity'''; this is the Strong Minimalist Thesis introduced by Chomsky in (2001).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chomsky|first=Noam|date=2001|title=Beyond explanatory adequacy|journal=MIT Working Papers in Linguistics|volume=20|pages=1–22}}</ref> Consequently, language is an optimal association of sound with meaning; the language faculty satisfies only the interface conditions imposed by the A-P and C-I performance systems; PF and LF are the only linguistic levels.

=== Strong minimalist thesis ===
Minimalism develops the idea that human language ability is optimal in its design and exquisite in its organization, and that its  inner workings conform to a very simple computation. On this view, [[universal grammar]] instantiates a perfect design in the sense that it contains only what is necessary. Minimalism further develops the notion of economy, which came to the fore in the early 1990s, though still peripheral to [[transformational grammar]]. ''Economy of derivation'' requires that movements (i.e., transformations) occur only if necessary, and specifically to satisfy to feature-checking, whereby an ''interpretable feature'' is matched with a corresponding ''uninterpretable feature''. (See discussion of feature-checking below.) ''Economy of representation'' requires that grammatical structures exist for a purpose. The structure of a sentence should be no larger or more complex than required to satisfy constraints on grammaticality.

Within minimalism, economy—recast in terms of the ''strong minimalist thesis'' (SMT)—has acquired increased importance.<ref>For a full description of the checking mechanism see Adger, David. 2003. ''Core Syntax. A Minimalist Approach''. Oxford: Oxford University Press; and also Carnie, Andrew. 2006. ''Syntax: A Generative Introduction'', 2nd Edition. Blackwell Publishers</ref> The 2016 book entitled ''Why Only Us''—co-authored by Noam Chomsky and Robert Berwick—defines the strong minimalist thesis as follows:

{{blockquote|The optimal situation would be that UG reduces to the simplest computational principles which operate in accord with conditions of computational efficiency. This conjecture is ... called the Strong Minimalist Thesis (SMT).|''Why Only Us?'' MIT Press. 2016, page 94.}}

Under the strong minimalist thesis, language is a product of inherited traits as developmentally enhanced through intersubjective communication and social exposure to individual languages (amongst other things). This reduces to a minimum the "innate" component (the genetically inherited component) of the language faculty, which has been criticized over many decades and is separate from the [[developmental psychology]] component.

Intrinsic to the syntactic model (e.g. the Y/T-model) is the fact that social and other factors play no role in the computation that takes place in '''narrow syntax'''; what Chomsky, Hauser and Fitch refer to as faculty of language in the narrow sense (FLN), as distinct from faculty of language in the broad sense (FLB). Thus, narrow syntax only concerns itself with interface requirements, also called legibility conditions. SMT can be restated as follows: syntax, narrowly defined, is a product of the requirements of the interfaces and nothing else. This is what is meant by "Language is an optimal solution to legibility conditions" (Chomsky 2001:96).

Interface requirements force deletion of features that are uninterpretable at a particular interface, a necessary consequence of Full Interpretation. A PF object must only consist of features that are interpretable at the articulatory-perceptual (A-P) interface; likewise a LF object must consist of features that are interpretable at the conceptual-intentional (C-I) interface. The presence of an uninterpretable feature at either interface will cause the derivation to crash.

Narrow syntax proceeds as a set of operations—Merge, Move and Agree—carried out upon a numeration (a selection of features, words etc., from the lexicon) with the sole aim of removing all uninterpretable features before being sent via Spell-Out to the A-P and C-I interfaces. The result of these operations is a hierarchical syntactic structure that captures the relationships between the component features.

=== Technical innovations ===
The exploration of minimalist questions has led to several radical changes in the technical apparatus of transformational generative grammatical theory. Some of the most important are:<ref>For some conceptual and empirical advantages of the MP over the traditional view see: Bošković, Željko. 1994. D-Structure, Θ-Criterion, and Movement into Θ-Positions. Linguistic Analysis 24: 247–286, and for more detailed discussions Bošković, Željko and Howard Lasnik (eds). 2006. ''Minimalist Syntax: The Essential Readings''. Malden, MA: Blackwell.</ref>
*the elimination of the distinction between [[deep structure and surface structure]] in favour of a '''derivational approach'''
*the elimination of [[X-bar theory]] in favour of '''bare phrase structure''' (see below)
*the elimination of indexation in favour of Move or Agree
*the elimination of the notion of [[Government (linguistics)|government]] in favour of feature-checking
*the idea that '''feature-checking'''—which matches interpretable and uninterpretable features, and subsequently deletes the latter—might be responsible for all structure-building operations, including Merge, Move, and Agree (see below)
*the idea that syntactic derivations proceed by clearly delineated stages called "'''phases'''" (see below)
*the specification that there are exactly '''two points where syntax interacts with other components''': a "spell-out" point between syntax and the interface with phonetic form (PF), and an additional point of interaction with logical form (LF)