This book introduces the analysis of natural language within the broader question of how language works - of how people use languages to configure words and morphemes in order to express meanings. Its step-by-step account covers every aspect of syntax and includes exercises and suggestions for further reading throughout.

Peter W. Culicover is Humanities Distinguished Professor in Linguistics and was the founding Director of the Center for Cognitive Science at the Ohio State University. His publications include Formal Principles of Language Acquisition co-authored with Kenneth Wexler (MIT 1983), Principles and Parameters (OUP 1997), Syntactic Nuts (OUP 1999), Dynamical Syntax co-authored with Andrzej Nowak (OUP 2003), and Simpler Syntax co-authored with Ray Jackendoff (OUP 2005).

• 1: Overview


• 2: Syntactic Categories


• 3: Basic Sentential Structure


• 4: Phrasal Categories


• 5: Conceptual Structure and the Lexicon


• 6: Argument Correspondences


• 7: Complex Clauses: Raising and Control


• 8: Predication


• 9: A' Constructions


• Glossary of Terms


• References


• Index