The notion of 'phase' has its motivation in economy principle, which has been proved to be appealing. But justifying the derivation by phase needs some consideration. Especially the interpretation/evaluation of phase and the assigned EPP-feature make problems and the solutions are required. To solve the problem of the phasal interpretation/evaluation, we make the following proposal: the activated are interpreted/evaluated at each phase. Further, we propose that the movement which do not accompany the agree operation is possible, which solve the problem of the assigned EPP-feature. These two proposals can be integrated into the one principle: maximize the effects of a syntactic operation. This principle, the generalized maximization principle, is the general version of Chomsky(2001)'s principle.

Despite a variety of accounts proposed to capture the grammatical properties that the so-called dummy plural maker (DPM) -tul in Korean displays, it has been commonly taken for granted that a DPMed phrase is to be c-commanded by its associate plural element (APE). This paper observes, however, that the APE itself can host DPM -tul. This fact calls for a novel licensing mechanism, as any account that resorts to a direct c-command relation between a DPMed phrase and its APE will fail. This paper proposes that there is a functional category that Agrees with the APE. This is plausible because the semantic interpretation of the DPM construction has more to do with a semantically plural element, i.e., the APE, rather than a DPMed category. Then DPM -tul on the APE can be naturally considered as a phonological realization of the Agree relation. DPM -tul on a non-APE element is viewed merely as a copy due to an operation called Spread, much like the distribution of negative morphemes in negative concord languages, except for the optionality of the phonological realization.

This paper provides a way for the expletive there to associate directly with its indefmite DP via Agree between their Sc` -features in narrow-syntactic derivation. It is claimed that in English, External Merge of there with _u[person] and _u[Case] features need to be allowed in the Spec of a weak v, where no θ-role is assigned to there and the there-argument link can be established by assuming that the _u[person] feature of there is valued via Agree with the φ-set of the associate DP. It is assumed that there and an indefinite DP are selected as a pair in the Sub-Lexical Array. A single θ-role and a unique Case value may thus be given to them. The single θ-role will be saturated as they merge into the weak vP and the unique Case value will be given to them via Multiple Agree with a higher T or v during the derivation. These are based on the assumption that Multiple Agree takes place sequentially, but not simultaneously, contra Chomsky (2001). Sequential application of Multiple Agree may contribute to rendering the computation purely derivational and remove the distinction of Multiple Agree from Agree.

Youn-gug Yang. 2001. Some Theoretical Effects and Problems is Agree Operation. Studies In Modern English Grammar 23, 95-106. This paper attempts to review theoretical effects of a new version of feature checking theory of Chomsky (2000), and to discuss its problems in terms of matching relation between a probe and a goal. To maximize the theoretical effects of Agree operation, this paper, focusing on Case, presents the following assumptions; a. Case features should be differentiated as nominative, null and accusatives. b. Functional categories, T and u bears Case as an inherent properties respectively in the lexicon: T bears nominative Case and u, accusative. c. Case should be deleted under matching between a probe(=the Case feature of T/u) and its goal(=that of a substantive category).