The value of a transformational model of syntax can be illustrated by comparing the taxonomic grammatical description of a complex sentence to a transformation-oriented description of the same sentence. The taxonomic approach, an immediate constituent analysis, requires 10 steps to break the sample sentence into its grammatical components; the transformational approach, incorporating both phrase structure rules and transformational rules, requires three steps to explain the sentence. Because the transformational method allows for generalizations about the process of embedding, it can make more economical statements about syntax. Furthermore, since the transformational theory holds that a finite set of phrase structure rules plus a finite set of transformational rules can explain any sentence, it is linguistically more complete and consistent and, thus, more practical in the classroom than the taxonomic theory which assumes that an infinite set of phrase structure rules is necessary to describe all sentences. (LH)