FIVE REASONS FOR BUILDING PHRASE STRUCTURES TOP-DOWN FROM LEFT TO RIGHT *
Cristiano Chesi · 2007
In this paper I will summarize five arguments supporting an explicit formalization of a minimalist grammar which is derivational and directional: derivational since constituents and dependencies are built dynamically, piecemeal, using structure building operations such as merge and move in a phase-tailored computation; directional in the sense that these structure building operations operate strictly from left-to-right as proposed by Colin Phillips (1996, 2003) and top-down (Chesi 2004). This directionality issue is obviously the main difference with respect to standard minimalist approach.