Parasiticism Meets the Miracle Creed Framework

• Published in: Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics Vol. 25; pp. 819 - 831
• Main Author: Park, Myung-Kwan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 한국영어학회 01.06.2025
• Subjects: 영어와문학
• ISSN: 1598-1398; 2586-7474
• DOI: 10.15738/kjell.25..202506.819

This paper investigates the licensing of parasitic gaps in English within the framework of Chomsky’s (2023) Miracle Creed (MC), which restricts Internal Merge (IM) to a single application per derivation. In this model, successive-cyclic movement is replaced by interface-driven accesses to a wh-phrase via phase heads. Focusing on parasitic gaps embedded within adjunct or subject phrases, we show that a single application of IM can yield a desired derived predicate through λ-abstraction, enabling predicate conjunction between the matrix v*P and the parasitic gap-containing adjunct or subject phrase, thus licensing the gap. However, certain cases challenge the sufficiency of this derivational procedure. To address these, we propose the traditional resumptive wh-strategy, in which a resumptive pro is bound by a wh-phrase internally merged at a higher phase edge. This strategy is compatible with the MC framework and provides a principled solution to apparent successive cyclic movement. Our findings support the MC model while highlighting the need for an auxiliary mechanism in structurally complex configurations. KCI Citation Count: 0