In his early plastic age, the child presents an asymmetrical growth in what concerns his motor system, when compared with his cognitive system. The latter seems to be far ahead of the former. It consists of many sub-systems; the most outstanding of which being language. TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR has been striving for more than half a century to try and deal with this phenomenon. It has evolved from a model of rules to a model of principles, to end up with the Minimalist Program. This book presents the successive approximations that Transformational Grammar has gone through since its early insemination in1957 up to the Minimalist Program. After which, there is a critical chapter called "Occam's Razor". Finally, there is a chapter on "Logical Form" and an appendix that deals with the major transformations of early transformational grammar.

The author holds a BA in American Civilization (Fez 1978), an MA in French linguistics (York 1982) and a PhD in Arabic linguistics (Dublin 1990). He has produced many publications on different subjects and has given talks and lectures in many countries. He spent one academic year in the Linguistic Department of the University of Washington, in which colleagues have much appreciated the diversity of his competences: "Dr. Ben Rochd is qualified to teach Arabic and many areas of linguistics: especially introduction to linguistics, syntax and history of linguistics. I met Dr. Ben Rochd personally and find him very knowledgeable, (Friz Newmeyer)