Essentials of Grammatical Theory

Book excerpt: The aim of this book, first published in 1979, is to provide a sound basic introduction to the study of grammar within linguistics. The work concentrates primarily on the core of grammatical theory rather than a single narrow theoretical viewpoint. After introductory chapters on the study of language and language as a semiotic system, the precise tasks of grammatical theory are clearly outlined. The aims and problems of generative grammar are then described, and the importance of grammatical analysis is highlighted. The central part of the book is devoted to the fundamental questions of syntactic theory and a detailed study of morphology. Finally, the author surveys the problems of grammar beyond the sentence. This title will be of interest to students of linguistics.