This practical coursebook introduces all the basics of modern syntactic analysis in a simple step-by-step fashion.

Part I. Basic Ideas in Syntax: 1. Defining syntax; 2. Syntactic data; 3. Hypotheses: rules; Part II. Categories and Subcategories: 4. Words and lexical categories; 5. Functional categories; 6. Pronouns; 7. Other subcategories of nouns; 8. Subcategories of verbs; 9. Tangent: tense, aspect and mood; 10. Auxiliaries; Part III. Constituents, Merge and Trees: 11. Constituency; 12. Complements; 13. Complements: a case study; 14. Specifiers of VP and TP; 15. Specifiers of NP and DP; 16. Tagging; 17. Adjuncts; 18. Drawing trees; Part IV. Movement and Control: 19. Passives; 20. Non-finite clauses 1: control constructions; 21. Non-finite clauses 1: raising constructions; 22. Head movement 1: auxiliaries; 23. Head movement 2: main verbs; 24. Wh-movement; Part V. Conclusions and Appendices: 25. Evaluating our progress; 26. The next steps; Appendix 1. Glossary, symbols and abbreviations; Appendix 2. Features and their values; Appendix 3. Rules, constraints and principles.

Andrew Carnie is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona, where he teaches syntactic theory and Celtic linguistics. His previous publications include Constituent Structure, Second Edition (2010), Irish Nouns (2008) and Syntax: A Generative Introduction, Second Edition (2006).