Reconstruction and the New Minimalism (published version)

Link to Paper: Reconstruction and the New Minimalism

Abstract

In this brief note, I discuss a problem that arises within the theoretical framework for natural language syntax based on Hopf algebra (Marcolli et al., 2025). The framework does not capture reconstruction effects that are the main empirical motivation for the copy theory of movement, and a cornerstone of minimalist syntax.

Keywords

reconstruction, internal Merge, copies, No Tampering Condition