Revisiting Parasitic Gap Construction under the Miracle Creed

Parasitic gap (PG) constructions have long been a focus of generative syntax and warrant renewed examination under the Miracle Creed (MC) framework, which limits Internal Merge (IM) to a single application per syntactic object. This paper argues that PGs are derivable under the MC, provided that movement operations yield derived predicates interpretable at the Conceptual-Intentional (CI) interface. Only A‘-movement enables such predicate formation via λ-abstraction, while A-movement to θ-marked positions fails to do so due to semantic saturation. Drawing on Nissenbaum’s (2000) predicate conjunction analysis, we show that both overt wh-movement and null operator movement trigger predicate formation, which licenses PGs when locality conditions are met. We further demonstrate that PGs can be licensed in ditransitive constructions involving applicative phrases, as the relevant structural configuration allows both the licensing gap and the parasitic gap to be interpreted within the same domain. Comparisons with across-the-board movement reinforce the claim that PG licensing uniquely depends on interface-visible predicate formation. These findings support a derivationally minimal yet semantically constrained view under the MC.