Alternative Directions for Minimalist Inquiry: Expanding and Contracting Phases of Derivation
This dissertation develops novel derivational mechanics for characterizing the syntactic component of human language — Tree Contraction Grammar (TCG). TCG falls within a general class of derivationally-oriented minimalist approaches, constituting a version of a Multiple Spell Out (MSO-)system (Chomsky 1999, Uriagereka 1999,