In his early plastic age, the child presents an asymmetrical growth in
what concerns his motor system, when compared with his cognitive system.
The latter seems to be far ahead of the former. It consists of many
sub-systems; the most outstanding of which being language.
TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR has been striving for more than half a century
to try and deal with this phenomenon. It has evolved from a model of
rules to a model of principles, to end up with the Minimalist Program.
This book presents the successive approximations that Transformational
Grammar has gone through since its early insemination in1957 up to the
Minimalist Program. After which, there is a critical chapter called
"Occam's Razor". Finally, there is a chapter on "Logical Form" and an
appendix that deals with the major transformations of early
transformational grammar.