Enrique Merino (UAB): ‘The Root Individuation Paradox: A minimalist solution’

Against this background, and following Harley (2014), I propose that roots are individuated in the syntax as abstract indices. I argue that such abstract individuation is not a theoretical luxury, but rather the simplest option compatible with an optimally designed Faculty of Language, as it involves the minimal formal apparatus necessary to preserve Full Interpretation. Under this view, (controversial) phenomena that are often taken to motivate root individuation empirically, such as the existence of root suppletion, are reinterpreted as theoretically possible consequences of the architecture of grammar, rather than as its primary motivation.

The second part of the talk addresses a related question: is there anything that makes roots syntactically relevant at all? To answer this question, I propose that the Principle of Inertia, in itself a third-factor (Chomsky 2008) principle, naturally applies to the computational system of human language: the computation has no motivation to alter its current state in the absence of a forcing condition. Under the view I wish to defend here, it is the presence of unvalued and/or uninterpretable features that makes the computation proceed. In this respect, I argue that roots cannot be fully interpretable abstract indices, as this would prevent them from partaking in the derivation. Building on Panagiotidis’ (2024) theory of features, I propose that roots are formal indices endowed with an unvalued category feature. This feature, {Cat:__}, constitutes the minimal formal instability (the less complex feature bundle) required to make an item syntactically active and therefore force the computational system to select it from the Numeration and apply Merge to it. The a-categorial nature of roots, then, derives from their forced individuation in the syntax, which is in essence a demand from the external cognitive systems, as discussed above, in consonance with minimalist ideals.

Finally, and time permitting, I will discuss the predictions of my proposal in relation to the question of whether root nodes can project structure or not.