Italian Syntax: Transformational and Relational Grammar (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, Series Number 21)

[from jacket] Dr Radford's book is an important contribution both to linguistic theory and to the study of Italian. He argues that the data of Italian syntax tell decisively against transformational grammar as a model for the syntax of natural language. He considers in particular the syntax and semantics of auxiliaries and modals, and verbs of cognition, perception and causation, and shows that the 'classical' transformational framework fails to describe or explain the phenomena in a convincing and revealing way.