Abstract
Japanese shows many phenomena which do not fit with the current Minimalist Program (MP) (Chomsky (1995, 2000, 2013)). Many theories in this program crucially depend on φ-features, but alternative possibilities should be pursued to explain various phenomena in Japanese, which lacks overt φ-feature agreement. In this paper, I propose that θ-features play important roles in syntax, and this is the motivation for the movements of DPs as well as Case valuation. Actually, English and Japanese have this θ-feature-based system in common, and many apparent differences can be attributed to two parametric differences, one of which is the morphological parameter and the other is the parameter on v recursion. In addition, it is argued that the latter parameter follows from the former one.
