The textbook provides an intensive introduction to recent work in syntactic theory within the minimalist framework. The approach taken is to presuppose no background knowledge of syntactic theory or historical linguistics. Rather than compare English with other languages, illustrations are drawn from varieties of English from around the world. Chapter topics include: principles and parameters of syntactic theory; grammatical categories and features; syntactic structure; empty categories within syntactic structures; the concept and practice of checking grammatical features; head movement; operator movement; the A movement operation; verb phrase shells; and agreement projections. Each chapter ends with a substantial workbook section containing exercises and material for classroom discussion, independent study, or course assignments, cross-referenced to textbook sections. A glossary is included. Contains 161 references. (MSE)