Locality and the Architecture of Syntactic Dependencies

A study on minimalist syntax presents a critique of Chomsky's Agree/phase framework and develops a more restrictive theory of the computational system with wide-ranging empirical consequences. The assumption that Agree and Move are strictly local (id est there is no long-distance Agree) leads naturally to conceptual and empirical arguments for a crash-proof computational system. Apparent long-distance dependencies turn out to be the outcome of a recursive chain on local complex dependencies. Among other phenomena, the author presents novel and detailed analyses of quirky subjects in Icelandic and Spanish, indefinite SE in Spanish and different types of expletive constructions in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Icelandic.