Reading Group: Foundations of Minimalist Syntax (Spring 2026) (near final draft)

Reading Group Announcement: Foundations of Minimalist Syntax

Spring 2026

Coordinator: Professor Chris Collins

Level: Graduate students and advanced undergraduate students.

Time: Thursday 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Place: 10 WP 103

Note: There is a credit optional available: directed reading for grads, independent study for undergrads.

Description:

The reading group will focus on reading and discussing as much of Marcolli et. al. 2025 (henceforth MSSM) as possible in one semester.

Marcolli, Matilde, Noam Chomsky and Robert Berwick. 2025.

Mathematical Structure of Syntactic Merge:An Algebraic Model for Generative Linguistics.

MIT Press, Cambridge. [389 pages]

MSSM proposes to formalize minimalist syntax using Hopf algebras. However, it is written in a framework that is unfamiliar and inaccessible to most generative syntacticians. The purpose of the reading group is to provide a space where we can help each other understand the formalism.

Some of the leading questions of the reading group will be the following (in part depending on the interests of the participants):

1. Which papers are important background for understanding MSSM?

2. How do the proposals in MSSM fit into the general evolution of the concept of Merge?

3. Are the proposals of MSSM an integral block, or are some of them better than others?

4. How can the theoretical proposals of MSSM be evaluated empirically?

5. What are the consequences of MSSM for the Ordinary Working Grammarian?

Contact me if you are interested in attending. Participation by Zoom is allowed.

Selected Background Readings:

Andrews, Avery. 2025. Some Prerequisites for Hopf Algebras in Syntax. Ms., ANU.

Blasiak, Paswel. 2010. Combinatorial Route to Algebra: The Art of Composition and Decomposition. Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science 12, 381-400.

Chomsky, Noam. 2019. Some Puzzling Foundational Issues: The Reading Program. Catalan Journal of Linguistics Special Issue, 263-285.

Chomsky, Noam. 2019. The UCLA Lectures. (https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/005485)

Chomsky, Noam. 2021. Minimalism: Where Are We Now, and Where Can We Hope to Go. Gengo Kenkyu 160, 1-41.

Chomsky, Noam. 2023. The Miracle Creed and the Strong Minimalist Thesis. In Matteo Greco and Davide Mocci (eds.), A Cartesian Dream: A Geometrical Account of Syntax. In Honor of Andrea Moro, 17-40. Lingbuzz Press.

Chomsky, Noam, T. Daniel Seely, Robert C. Berwick, Sandiway Fong, M.A.C. Huybregts, Histsugu Kitahara, Andrew McInnerney, Yushi Sugimoto. 2023. Merge and the Strong Minimalist Thesis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Collins, Chris. 2017. Merge(X,Y) = {X,Y}. In Leah Bauke, Andreas Blümel, and Erich Groat

(eds.), Labels and Roots, 47-68. De Gruyter Mouton.

Collins, Chris. 2002. Eliminating Labels. In Samuel Epstein and Daniel Seely (eds.), Derivation and Explanation in the Minimalist Program, 43-64. Blackwell.

Collins, Chris and Erich Groat. To Appear. Copies and Repetitions. The Cambridge Handbook of Minimalism. (http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003809)

Collins, Chris and Edward Stabler. 2016. A Formalization of Minimalist Syntax. Syntax 19, 43-78.