This pathbreaking study presents a new perspective on the role of derivation, the series of operations by which sentences are formed. Working within the Minimalist Program and focusing on English, the authors develop an original theory of generative syntax, providing illuminating new analyses of some central syntactic constructions. Two questions are explored: firstly, can the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) be eliminated from Minimalist analysis without loss, and secondly, is the construct A-Chain similarly eliminable? In investigating these questions, the authors present a pioneering challenge to fundamental assumptions in syntactic theory.