An Introduction to the Principles of Transformational Syntax

Download or read book An Introduction to the Principles of Transformational Syntax written by Adrian Akmajian and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1975 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The central goal of this text is to introduce the reader to the methods of argumentation used in the construction of syntactic theory: the ways in which hypotheses are supported or shown to be inadequate. It it not so much about syntactic theory as an attempt to involve the reader in constructing syntactic theory--even at the beginning. The text deals with a selected number of the clearer issues that arise in analyzing a limited set of English constructions, and it is restricted to a "classical" framework. The authors believe that in this way students will gain a thorough grounding in the methods of syntactic argumentation, will be well equipped to explore other areas on their own, and to appreciate the significance of the many theoretical innovations that have been proposed to make up for the inadequacies in the classical approach.