This volume presents the first large-scale treatment of German syntax along the framework of Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), which well suits German's rich morphology and flexible word order. Berman addresses both empirical and theoretical concerns, examining phenomena that have long been discussed in the literature yet remain controversial.

The principles of LFG are applied to, and occasionally challenged by, three main areas of theoretical interest: subjects, traces, and complement clauses. This reaches central topics of German syntax, such as phrase structure, "subjectless" clauses, expletives, agreement, weak crossover, long-distance dependencies, distribution of subordinated clauses, correlative pronouns, and embedded clauses.