Building on the success of the bestselling first edition, the second edition of this textbook provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the major issues in Principles and Parameters syntactic theory, including phrase structure, the lexicon, case theory, movement, and locality conditions.

- Includes new and extended problem sets in every chapter, all of which have been annotated for level and skill type.

- Features three new chapters on advanced topics including vP shells, object shells, control, gapping and ellipsis and an additional chapter on advanced topics in binding.

- Offers a brief survey of both Lexical-Functional Grammar and Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar.

- Succeeds in strengthening the reader's foundational knowledge, and prepares them for more advanced study.

- Supported by an instructor's manual and online resources for students and instructors, available at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/carnie

"This book is a perfect example of how sophisticated syntactic concepts can be presented in a genuinely reader friendly way. The syntax student is led carefully through argumentation to current syntactic theory and at the end has a clear understanding not only of the whats of syntax but also the whys." - Lisa deMena Travis, McGill University