This volume examines how the displacement property of language is
characterized in formal terms under the Minimalist Program and to what
extent this proposed characterization of it can explain relevant
displacement properties. The birth of the Principles and Parameters
Approach makes it possible to simplify transformational rules so
radically as to be reduced to the single rule Move. The author proposes
that Move, as conceived as a special case of Merge, named internal
Merge, under the Minimalist Program requires two prerequisite
operations: one is to "dig" into a structure to find a target of Merge,
called Search, and the other is to make this target reach the top of the
structure, called Float. The author argues that these two different
operations are constrained by "minimal computation." Due to the nature
of how they apply, these operations are constrained by this economy
condition in such a way that Search must be minimal and Float obeys
Minimize chain links, which requires that this operation cannot skip
possible landing sites. The author demonstrates that this mechanism of
minimal Search and Float deals with a variety of phenomena that involve
quantifier raising, such as rigidity effects of scope interaction, the
availability of cumulative readings of plural relation sentences and
pair-list readings of multiple wh-questions. Also demonstrated in this
volume is that the same mechanism properly captures the locality effects
of topicalization, focus movement, and ellipsis with contrastive focus.