Minimal Projection Heads & Optimality

Abstract

this paper is to show that inversion of the subject and auxiliary verb in English follows from the interaction of four principles, given the notion of Extended Projection proposed in Grimshaw (1991). The principles are these: Projection Principle (Proj-P) Selected complements must be the same at d-structure and s-structure Operators-in-Specifier (Op-Spec) Syntactic operators must be in Specifier position Obligatory Heads (Ob-Hd) Heads must be filled at s-structure Minimal Projection (Min-Proj) A functional projection must be functionally interpreted There is no theory of inversion per se, rather the patterns of inversion follow from th