Generalized search and cyclic derivation by phase: A preliminary study

Merge builds syntactic objects, but Merge alone cannot capture the syntactic relations established between syntactic objects. These relations include Agree(ment), chain-formation, and binding. In order to capture them in a unified manner, this chapter proposes that syntax is equipped with a general search mechanism, which we call Search. We characterize Search as an operation that establishes a relation between identical (complexes of) features. We also pose the question: what might the basic operations of syntax be? In the course of investigating this question, we scrutinize some of the putative operations in syntax, such as feature-valuation, feature-inheritance, and Transfer, and draw the conclusion that they are unnecessary and therefore should be eliminated. Our answer to the above question will thus be that Merge and Search are the only basic operations of syntax. The possibility that Search might be formally reduced to Merge is further suggested, in which case there would be only one fundamental operation of syntax, i.e., Merge, with an additional operation Search derived from it.