ABSTRACT
Syntactic theory has its origins in Noam Chomsky's 1957 book Syntactic Structures. On the one hand, it is concerned to develop precise descriptions of aspects of the syntax of various languages. On the other hand, it aims to develop a general theory of syntax. This chapter looks at a variety of preliminary matters by looking at the goals of syntactic theory, stressing that it is concerned both with individual languages and with language in general. Then, it looks at what syntacticians mean by a language, noting that it is generally assumed that linguistics is concerned with I-(internalized) languages, sets of rules and principles in the mind of a speaker. The chapter presents the important difference between acceptability and grammaticality, considering the relation between syntactic theory and traditional grammar. It also discusses the importance of syntactic theory both within linguistics and outside. In particular, at syntactic theory's role in the computer processing of spoken and written language.
