Merge (linguistics)

Merge (usually capitalized) is one of the basic operations in the Minimalist Program, a leading approach to generative syntax, when two syntactic objects are combined to form a new syntactic unit (a set). Merge also has the property of recursion in that it may apply to its own output: the objects combined by Merge are either lexical items or sets that were themselves formed by Merge. This recursive property of Merge has been claimed to be a fundamental characteristic that distinguishes language from other cognitive faculties. As Noam Chomsky (1999) puts it, Merge is "an indispensable operation of a recursive system ... which takes two syntactic objects A and B and forms the new object G={A,B}" (p. 2).^[1]

In some variants of the Minimalist Program Merge is triggered by feature checking, e.g. the verb "eat" selects the noun "cheesecake" because the verb has an uninterpretable N-feature [uN] ("u" stands for "uninterpretable") which must be checked (or deleted), due to full interpretation.^[2] By saying that this verb has a nominal uninterpretable feature we rule out such ungrammatical constructions as *eat beautiful (the verb selects an adjective). Schematically it can be illustrated as:

  
          V
  ________|_________
 |                 |
eat [V, uN]   cheesecake [N]

Chomsky (2001) distinguishes between external and internal Merge: if A and B are separate objects then we deal with external Merge; if either of them is part of the other it is internal Merge.^[3]

In other approaches to generative syntax, such as Head-driven phrase structure grammar and Lexical functional grammar, there is no precise analogue to Merge. However, in these theories, feature structures are used to account for many of the same facts. Though Merge is usually assumed to be unique to language, the linguists Jonah Katz and David Pesetsky have argued that the harmonic structure of tonal music is also a result of the operation Merge.^[4]

This notion of 'merge' may in fact be related to Fauconnier's 'blending' notion in cognitive linguistics.

References

1. ^ Chomsky, N. (1999). Derivation by phase. Cambridge, MA: MIT. 
2. ^ Adger, D. (2003). Core syntax: A Minimalist approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199243700. 
3. ^ Chomsky, N. (2001). Beyond explanatory adequacy. Cambridge, MA: MIT. 
4. ^ Katz, Jonah; David Pesetsky (2009) "The Identity Thesis for Language and Music" http://ling.auf.net/lingBuzz/000959