The EPP as Argument Structure Requirements on Functional Verbal Heads

Abstract

The Problems of Projection (POP) approach to minimalist syntax (Chomsky 2013, 2014, 2015) offers no account of the basic facts of short movement, agreement, and Case in expletive sentences, and involves certain derivational mechanisms of some complexity which, if eliminated, would simplify the overall theory. The present paper addresses these issues. It is argued that Inheritance is an unnecessary complication of the theory, that each head serves as a phase head (simplifying the inventory of possible head types), and that short movement is due to the argument structure requirements of functional verbal heads rather than to labeling deficiencies, as claimed in the POP literature cited above.