The newly-emerging field of theoretically informed but simultaneously empirically based syntax
is dynamic but little-represented in the literature. This volume addresses this need. While
there has previously been something of a gulf between theoretical linguists in the generative
tradition and those linguists who work with quantitative data types this gap is narrowing. In
the light of the empirical revolution in the study of syntax even people whose primary concern
is grammatical theory take note of processing effects and attribute certain effects to them.
Correspondingly workers focusing on the surface evidence can relate more to the concepts of
the theoreticians because the two layers of explanation have been brought into contact. And
these workers too must account for the data gathered by the theoreticians. An additional
innovation is the generative analysis of historical data - this is now seen as psycholinguistic
theory-relevant data like any other. These papers are thus a snapshot of some of the work
currently being done in evidence-based grammar using both experimental and historical data.
