Topicalization in the Minimalist Program (April 18, 2018)

This was an essay that I completed for my university syntax course for my Linguistics minor. Syntax is one of my favorite subjects of Linguistics. Even though this was just a first level syntax course, it was quite fun.

For this assignment, we were asked to consider Noam Chomsky’s Minimalist Program. MP is able to easily analyze neutral and interrogative sentences. However, it becomes more difficult to analyze topicalized sentences. The attached essay is my attempt to add support in MP for topicalization. I propose the creation of [+top (strong)] and [+top] features.