Derivation and Explanation in the Minimalist Program

Derivation and Explanation in the Minimalist Program presents accessible, cutting-edge research on an enduring and fundamental question confronting all linguistic inquiry - the respective roles of derivation and representation.The volume explores ways in which the Minimalist perspective on transformational rules and their iterative application facilitates deeper explanation than is possible within Government and Binding theory. Through discussion of a wide range of phenomena, the majority of papers in the volume present arguments in favor of derivational approaches, although alternative, representational perspectives are also included. Derivation and Explanation in the Minimalist Program is essential reading for anyone interested in the foundational yet contemporary issue of derivation versus representation and its relation to current Minimalist method, analysis, and the quest for explanation.

Samuel David Epstein is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. He is co-founder of Syntax: A Journal of Theoretical, Experimental and Interdisciplinary Research and has published widely on syntactic theory. He is the author of Traces and Their Antecedents (1991); co-author of A Derivational Approach to Syntactic Relations (with E. Groat, R. Kawashima, and H. Kitahara, 1998); and co-editor of Working Minimalism (with N. Hornstein, 1999).

T. Daniel Seely is Associate Professor of Linguistics at Eastern Michigan University. His work on syntactic theory has appeared in journals such as Linguistic Inquiry and Word, and he is a former moderator of The Linguist List.