Abstract

Since the Bare Phrase Structure was proposed, ‘projection’, ‘endocentricity’ and ‘label’ have become just stipulation. In Chomsky (2013), based on the simplest Merge, he argues that ‘label’ must not be formed in narrow syntax and it must be captured by the third factor principle, i.e., labelling algorithm. This exocentric, search-based system gives rise a new problem: how to label the exocentric structures without any stipulation in narrow syntax? In this talk, I will present one possible solution in the case of infinitival clauses. Based on Epstein, Kitahara and Seely (2016), I argue that external pair-Merge of phase heads to non-phase heads derives de-phasing effect (a cancellation of phases). The consequences of this analysis are also discussed such as ‘grammatical’ derivations for some cases of improper movement, including tough-constructions in English, hyper-raising in Japanese, and Merge-over-Move principle in terms of labelling.