Parasiticism Meets the Miracle Creed Framework

Abstract

This paper investigates the licensing of parasitic gaps in English within the framework of Chomsky’s (2023) Miracle Creed (MC), which restricts Internal Merge (IM) to a single application per derivation. In this model, successive-cyclic movement is replaced by interface-driven accesses to a wh-phrase via phase heads. Focusing on parasitic gaps embedded within adjunct or subject phrases, we show that a single application of IM can yield a desired derived predicate through λ-abstraction, enabling predicate conjunction between the matrix v*P and the parasitic gap-containing adjunct or subject phrase, thus licensing the gap. However, certain cases challenge the sufficiency of this derivational procedure. To address these, we propose the traditional resumptive wh-strategy, in which a resumptive pro is bound by a wh-phrase internally merged at a higher phase edge. This strategy is compatible with the MC framework and provides a principled solution to apparent successive cyclic movement. Our findings support the MC model while highlighting the need for an auxiliary mechanism in structurally complex configurations.