Andrew Radford's new textbook, Syntactic theory and the structure of English: a minimalist approach, is written for students with little or no background in syntax, and is based on current work in syntactic theory which draws on key concepts of Chomsky's minimalist program. It covers a wide range of topics in syntax: syntactic structure, merger, empty categories, cheking, head movement, operator movement, A.movement, VP shells and agreement projections. Radford sets out principles and parameters in the opening chapters, presents theoretical issues and discusses structural variation within English. This book helps the student understand what it takes to develop a theory of language and to appreciate the relation between theory and data, covers the syntax and structure of a range of different construction types in Standard English, and gets students to analyse phrases and sentences for themselves, within a minimalist framework. There is an integral workbook section at the end of each chapter and a substantial glossary at the end of the book.