minimalist program

linguistics

Also known as: MP

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July 20, 2026

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The Minimalist Program (MP) is a framework within Noam Chomsky's theories of linguistics. It aims to explain how humans acquire language, proposing that language is a biologically based cognitive capacity. The MP simplifies previous theories by suggesting that grammars can be constructed using basic operations like "Merge," which combines elements, and "parameters," which allow for variations across languages. This approach seeks to be both descriptively adequate, generating all and only the grammatical expressions of a language, and explanatorily adequate, explaining how individuals acquire their internal language (I-language). The MP has also been linked to biology, suggesting a simpler and more easily accommodated structure within the natural sciences.1234

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Noam Chomsky
Rule systems in Chomskyan theories of language
…the introduction of the “minimalist program” (MP) in the early 1990s, deep structure (and surface structure) disappeared altogether. Move α, and thus modification of structure from one derivational step to another, was replaced by “Move” and later by “internal Merge,” a variant of “external Merge,” itself a crucial basic…
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…the introduction of the “minimalist program” (MP) in the early 1990s, deep structure (and surface structure) disappeared altogether. Move α, and thus modification of structure from one derivational step to another, was replaced by “Move” and later by “internal Merge,” a variant of “external Merge,” itself a crucial basic…
Read More