A Minimalist View on the Syntax–Semantics Relationship: Turning the Mind into a Snowflake. Studies in Philosophy of Language and Linguistics

Current developments of the Minimalist Program in generative linguistics put the procedure of labeling syntactic objects at the center of the syntax–semantics transition. This book provides a discussion of consequences of such proposals for a proper analysis of different varieties of the operation Merge and their interpretive reflexes, as well as for the general theory of the syntax–semantics relationship. It argues that the absence of substitutional operations in Narrow Syntax should restrict the range of admissible interpretive operations on adjunction structures in the conceptual-intentional component. It also debates that syntactic chains are subject to interpretive procedures properly analyzed with the help of counterpart-theoretic concepts.