(10) a.
C[uQ] TP
... ...
which[vQ]pictureb.which[vQ]pictureC[vQ] TP...twh...In pursuing projection-free syntax that dispenses with (2)-(4), Fukui (2011)
proposes to characterize the overall tendency of syntactic computation from
a novel point of view: Merge, so long as it is unconstrained and applies freely
(see Chomsky 2008), should be able to generate all sorts of SOs with mixed
forms and properties. However, what we observe is that the classes of SOs
generated via Merge are by no means random, and they exhibit certain sys-
tematic patterns. Fukui (2011) points out that EM mostly serves for creating
endocentric {H, XP} structures, which he proposes to characterize as “asym-
metric,” while IM almost always generates structurally “symmetric” {XP, YP}
structures. It is further suggested in his analysis that {XP, YP} structures are
fundamentally stable, while asymmetric {H, XP} structures are unbalanced and
hence unstable, and that once free applications of EM create asymmetric/
unbalanced {H, XP} structures, they should get stabilized by being mapped
to some symmetric {XP, YP} structures. Thus, syntactic computation exhibits
a systematic transitional pattern from EM-based asymmetric {H, XP} to IM-
based symmetric {XP, YP}.^3
(11) Fukui’s (2011) Generalization:
“Asymmetric”/“endocentric” SOs of the form {H, XP} are unstable, and
they must be mapped to “symmetric” structures of the form {XP, YP}.
Fukui’s (2011) generalization in (11) pertains to an important intuition that
syntactic computation is essentially driven by a need for a certain type of struc-
tural “symmetry.”
Pushing Fukui’s idea further, we would like to point out that the generaliza-
tion in (11) can be extended to cover cases of head-movement (X^0 -movement)
as well. Although whether head-movement is syntactic or not has been contested
(see, e.g., Chomsky 2001, Boeckx and Stjepanović 2001), the common assump-
tion is that it is a form of syntactic movement that adjoins an LI X^0 to another
LI Y^0 that c-commands the initial occurrence of X^0. According to the traditional
Feature-equilibria in syntax 13