This book is intended primarily for undergraduate students of
English, though it will also be useful for undergraduates in
linguistics focusing on English. It shows how a restricted set of
principles can account for a wide range of the phenomena of English
syntax.

While the main focus of the book is empirical, it introduces
important theoretical concepts: theta theory, X-bar theory, case
theory, locality, binding theory, economy, full interpretation,
functional projections. In doing so it prepares the student for
more advanced theoretical work. The authors integrate many recent
insights into the nature of syntactic structure into their
discussion. They present information in a gradual way: hypotheses
developed in early chapters are reviewed and modified in subsequent
ones. The authors also pay attention to the relation between
structure and interpretation and to language variation, and
particularly to register variation. They include a wide range of
diverse exercises, giving the student an opportunity for creative
individual work on English.