Adjuncts Undergo Immediate Transfer upon their MERGE

Abstract

In Chomsky et al. (2019), Merge as a structure-building operation is revised to MERGE, an operation on a workspace (WS). A WS is a computational space at any given point of derivation where syntactic objects undergo MERGE. This study recasts the Adjunct Condition using such operations as MERGE, Labeling, and Transfer. Particularly, the study proposes that when a non-minimal projection XP (an adjunct) upon its MERGE gives rise to a labeling problem in a configuration of {XP, YP}, it undergoes immediate Transfer in order to resolve the problem. The proposed analysis accounts for the ban on extraction out of adjuncts. Since adjuncts undergo immediate Transfer upon their MERGE, they are opaque and the items inside them become inaccessible to further syntactic operations. However, in exceptional cases where extraction out of adjuncts is permitted, the study proposes that the syntactic object containing a matrix predicate and an adjunct is labeled via feature sharing as <event/aspect, event/aspect> due to the relationship established by theta-identification (Higginbotham 1985). As a result of proper labeling, the study assumes that adjuncts contained in the now labeled syntactic object do not undergo Immediate Transfer, eventually allowing extraction from them. All in all, this paper deduces the Adjunct Condition within the framework of MERGE, interacting with Labeling and Transfer.