In looking for a good introductory textbook on Generative Syntax, I came across this StackExchange comment, which mentions, among others, Radford's "Transformational Grammar, A First Course". I perused Radford's bibliography and found out he has written several textbooks on Generative Syntax, all of which have received good reviews. However, it is unclear to me what the differences are between his various books? Does anyone here know? I'm interested in the titles:
- Analysing English Sentences, 2nd ed. (2016)
- An Introduction to English Sentence Structure (2009)
- Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English (2004)
- English Syntax: An Introduction (2004)
- Syntax: A Minimalist Introduction (1997)
- Syntactic Theory and the Structure of English: A Minimalist Approach (1997)
- Transformational Grammar: A First Course (1988)
It goes without saying that a book that was written in 2016 contains more up-to-date information and perspective than one that was written in 1988. However, it would be naive to say, based solely on the date of publication, that the most recent book is superior to the others.
Ideally, someone here who is familiar with these textbooks will be able to:
- Separate the titles into groups each of which comprises essentially different editions of the same book, even if they are not explicitly marked as such.
- Indicate the differences between the various groups of books established in step 1.
- Indicate, with respect to each of these groups of books, if it is indeed the case that the most recent one is also the best one in terms of clarity, pedagogy, content, structure, and any other criterion that may seem important.
- Optionally: Indicate other books, not written by Radford, that are roughly equivalent in terms of content, but give Radford's a good fight.
I should mention that all these textbooks are quite expensive even second hand (an electronic version is out of the question for me). This is why these questions are so important to me. I will only be able to afford to buy a single textbook.
