Abstract

In this paper I will try to outline the basic tenets of Radical Minimalism, exploring previous ideas in further depth. I will assume orthodox Minimalism, and take that as a point of departure for new inquiries. I will test Radical Minimalism by analyzing what I consider to be the one and only generative mechanism in the human mind: the operation merge. I will review previous literature that has addressed this topic and then present our own proposal, trying to derive the conceptual necessity and the properties of merge and label from interface conditions. I will also address the question of feature interpretability, and see if I can dispense with that in order to build a radically minimalist theory. I will also present our theory of derivation by phases in radically minimalist terms, which will implicate positing only principled operations and deriving everything from the dynamics of the derivation in interaction with interface requirements. My ultimate goal will be to integrate the study of language and the study of the physical universe, as a physical system among many others with which language should optimally share characteristics, operations and principles that I take to be universal.