The Minimalist Program, PRO and Case

Abstract

The present work has, through a theoretical cut of the Generative Syntax, to use the Chomskyan research program, the Minimalist Program, for the analysis of the PRO category. This category is considered phonetically empty, but syntactically present, being responsible for syntactic relations such as those belonging to pronouns, whether they are defined or not, and even referential expressions. In this work a brief comparison of the discussions of Chomsky & Lasnik (1996) and Martin (1996) on the presence or absence of Case in the syntactic relations of the PRO category is also carried out.