Phases and infinitival clauses in the miracle creed system

Abstract Phases have a 25-year-old tradition in minimalist thinking. Importantly, from the perspective of the Strong Minimalist Thesis, the concept phase has received extra-linguistic motivation by laws of nature leading to computational efficiency in the linguistic system. The most recent theoretical development called Miracle Creed (MC), has brought phases back into focus. Phases are theta-related, cyclic units and phase heads determine access points to interpretation and externalization. We explore the MC-system (Chomsky, N. 2024. The miracle creed and SMT. In M. Grecco & D. Mocci (eds.), A cartesian dream: A geometrical account of syntax: In honor of Andrea Moro , 17–39. Lingbuzz Press) and how it is crucially simplified by Kitahara and Seely (Kitahara, H. & T. D. Seely. 2023. The Role of 3rd Factor in the Form of Merge talk given in Göttingen December 2023 . Kitahara, H. & T. D. Seely. 2024a. Merge and Minimal Search: A Preliminary Sketch from GK to MC and Beyond. 2024. Handout GIA March 2024. Kitahara, H. & Seely, T. D. 2024b. Simplification and extensions of the miracle creed. Linguistic Variation . John Benjamins 2025) before we propose a revision on how to determine the external theta position. The resulting system allows us to systematically analyze the infinitival clauses traditionally classified as Raising, Control (OC, NOC and arbitrary control) and Tough-Movement, in terms of phases. We keep the insights of the MC-system but avoid the indeterminacy of the EA-positon.