This volume emphasizes a new line of thinking in generative grammar which acknowledges that certain synchronic properties of languages can only be fully understood if diachronic data is taken into consideration. The central topics addressed in this collection of papers are (1) a critical assessment of the hypothesis that certain apparently synchronic generalizations are actually the result of the mechanisms of language change, (2) an inquiry into how diachronic data can be used to evaluate and shape formal analyses of particular synchronic phenomena. Reviving the interest in diachronic explanations for synchronic data, the contributions provide novel and original diachronic accounts of phenomena that up to now have escaped a deeper synchronic explanation, including the nature of EPP features, gaps in the distribution of complementizer agreement, and counterexamples to the generalization that rich verbal inflection correlates with verb movement. Table of contentsPreface vii Introduction Eric Fuß and Carola Trips 1–29 On the development of possessive determiners: Consequences for DP structure Artemis Alexiadou 31–58 Diachronic Clues to Pro-drop and complementizer agreement in Bavarian Eric Fuß 59–100 Syntactic effects of inflectional morphology and competing Grammars Eric Haeberli 101–130 Language change versus grammar change: What diachronic data reveal about the distinction between core grammar and periphery Roland Hinterhölzl 131–160 The EPP, fossilized movement and reanalysis Andrew Simpson 161–189 Restructuring and the development of functional categories Zoe Wu 191–217 Index 219–226