Syntactic Theory: The Essential Readings provides a selection of key seminal articles in syntax that demonstrate the empirical and theoretical reasoning that led to current syntactic theory. The accompanying introduction and discussion questions by two prominent researchers teach students how to critically read precedent-setting works, highlighting the ways in which each article is simultaneously outmoded and yet still essential. Each article's lasting contribution to an inclusive basic understanding of the field of syntax is illustrated throughout the volume. Authors excerpted in the book include Noam Chomsky, Paul Postal, Howard Lasnik, and Luigi Rizzi. By selecting works that are written in older frameworks but are still pertinent today, Syntactic Theory: The Essential Readings trains students to read primary literature beyond the setting in which it was written, isolating significant insights and applications.

Richard S. Kayne is Silver Professor in the Department of Linguistics at New York University. He is the editor of Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax, and author of French Syntax (1975), Connectedness and Binary Branching (1984), The Antisymmetry of Syntax (1994), Parameters and Universals (2000), Movement and Silence (2005), and Comparisons and Contrasts (2010).

Thomas Leu is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Raffaella Zanuttini is Professor of Linguistics at Yale University. She is the author of Negation and Clausal Structure: A Comparative Study of Romance Languages (1997).