Phases and Interpretation

In the last decade syntactic research within the Minimalist Program was fo-cussed mainly on three basic issues: a) How the set of minimally necessary syntactic operations is to be characterized (including questions about the exact nature of Copy and Merge, the status of remnant movement, the role of head movement in the grammar), b) How the set of minimally necessary functional heads can be defined that determine the built-up and the interpretation of syntactic objects, and c) How these syntactic operations and objects interact with principles and requirements that are thought to hold at the two interfaces.The concept of “phase” and the notion that derivations are built-up cyclically interspersed with phases of interpretation on both the PF- and the LF-side plays an important role in defining these crucial issues.