{
  "creator": [
    "Guerrero, Diego"
  ],
  "date": [
    "2026-04-20"
  ],
  "description": [
    "This article examines the claim that the recursive operation Merge underlies the generative structure of the natural number system. I argue that this claim rests on a conflation between recursion as a property of syntactic representation and recursion as a property of numerical computation. In syntax, repeated applications of Merge yield hierarchically structured expressions; in arithmetic, the successor function yields successive values. These are not the same kind of operation. Focusing on recent proposals by Mendívil-Giró (2025) and Watanabe (2017), I show that Merge, whether external or internal, does not by itself derive numerical succession, but only structured symbolic objects whose interpretation must be independently determined. I further argue that the principal assumptions needed to sustain a Merge-based theory of natural number (innate numerical generativity, hierarchical structure in the count list, and a primitive lexical item corresponding to 1) lack independent empirical support. I conclude that number generativity is better understood as an emergent property of compositional symbolic structure than as the direct output of a successor-like operation implemented by narrow syntax."
  ],
  "format": [
    "application/pdf",
    "text/html",
    "text/xml"
  ],
  "identifier": [
    "https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/21979",
    "10.5964/bioling.21979"
  ],
  "language": [
    "eng"
  ],
  "publisher": [
    "PsychOpen GOLD / Leibniz Institut for Psychology (ZPID)"
  ],
  "relation": [
    "https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/21979/21979.pdf",
    "https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/21979/21979.html",
    "https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/21979/21979.xml"
  ],
  "rights": [
    "Copyright (c) 2026 Diego Guerrero",
    "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"
  ],
  "source": [
    "Biolinguistics; Vol. 20 (2026); 1-14",
    "1450-3417",
    "10.5964/bioling.v20"
  ],
  "subject": [
    "Merge",
    "recursion",
    "successor principle",
    "natural numbers",
    "categorical recursion"
  ],
  "title": [
    "Merge Does Not Trigger a n + 1 Recursive Function: A Reply to Mendivil-Giró (2025)"
  ],
  "type": [
    "info:eu-repo/semantics/article",
    "info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion"
  ]
}