The direction in which the structure of sentences and filler-gap dependencies are built is a topic of fundamental importance to linguistic theory and its applications. This book develops an integrated understanding of structure building, movement and locality embedded in a syntactic theory that argues for a 'top down' approach, presenting an explicit counterweight to the bottom-up derivations pervading the Chomskian mainstream. It combines a compact and comprehensive historical perspective on structure building, the cycle, and movement, with detailed discussions of island effects, the typology of long-distance filler-gap dependencies, and the special problems posed by the subject in clausal syntax. Providing introductions to the main issues, reviewing extant arguments for bottom-up and top-down approaches, and presenting several case studies in its development of a new theory, this book should be of interest to all students and scholars of language interested in syntactic structures and the dependencies inside them.

‘Marcel den Dikkenʼs book Dependency and Directionality is a must-read for syntacticians. It calls into question many long-held assumptions about the building of syntactic structures and replaces standard views with a challenging alternative that is supported with page after page of solid evidence.'

Frederick J. Newmeyer - University of Washington Adjunct Professor, University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, British Columbia