This book introduces formal grammar theories that play a role in current
linguistic theorizing (Phrase Structure Grammar, Transformational
Grammar/Government & Binding, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar,
Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Head-Driven Phrase
Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar). The
key assumptions are explained and it is shown how the respective theory
treats arguments and adjuncts, the active/passive alternation, local
reorderings, verb placement, and fronting of constituents over long
distances. The analyses are explained with German as the object
language. The second part of the book compares these approaches with
respect to their predictions regarding language acquisition and
psycholinguistic plausibility. The nativism hypothesis, which assumes
that humans posses genetically determined innate language-specific
knowledge, is critically examined and alternative models of language
acquisition are discussed. The second part then addresses controversial
issues of current theory building such as the question of flat or binary
branching structures being more appropriate, the question whether
constructions should be treated on the phrasal or the lexical level, and
the question whether abstract, non-visible entities should play a role
in syntactic analyses. It is shown that the analyses suggested in the
respective frameworks are often translatable into each other. The book
closes with a chapter showing how properties common to all languages or
to certain classes of languages can be captured. The book is a
translation of the German book Grammatiktheorie, which was published by
Stauffenburg in 2010. This book is a new edition of http:
//langsci-press.org/catalog/book/25, http:
//langsci-press.org/catalog/book/195 and http:
//langsci-press.org/catalog/book/2
