Plurality in the Label-Less Grammar Model

In generative syntax, a core role is usually played by multiple, if not, all of a range of label(-like) elements (lexical category labels, functional category labels, X-bar theoretic sublabels, formal features). Whilst the role of such elements is substantially reduced in Minimalist proposals like Chomsky’s (1995, [1995] 2015) Bare Phrase Structure, various connected labelling algorithm proposals, and Collins’ (2002) label-free theory, formal features are still central in such proposals. This talk presents a brief overview of the Label-Less Grammar Model (LLGM) presented in my PhD dissertation (Wall 2025), which aims to pursue a more radical approach than these previous accounts. First, a brief overview is provided of the core components of the LLGM: its simple, pre-syntactic lexicon, single Pair-Merge operation (Zwart 2012), and the novel C-I interface condition, Merge as Specify. Second, it will be shown how the LLGM can be applied to English plurality and some cross-linguistic extensions, including accounting for various plurality-based phenomena (plurals in compounds, pluralia tantum, double plurals), whilst requiring fewer assumptions than previous generative accounts of plurality.

 

Selected references

Chomsky, Noam. 1995. Bare phrase structure. In: Héctor Campos, and Paula Kempchinsky, editors. Evolution and revolution in linguistic theory. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 51–109.

Chomsky, Noam. [1995] 2015. The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Collins, Chris. 2002. Eliminating labels. In: Samuel D. Epstein, and T. Daniel Seely, editors, Derivation and explanation in the Minimalist Program. Oxford: Blackwell. 42–64. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470755662

Wall, Joanna. 2025. Towards a label-less grammar. Amsterdam: LOT Publications.
Zwart, Jan-Wouter. 2012. Structure and order: Asymmetric merge. In: Cedric Boeckx, editor. The Oxford handbook of linguistic minimalism. Oxford/New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 96–118.