Temperature modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMd.s.c.) was applied in a study of syndiotactic polypropylene. The crystallites melt from their lateral surfaces only and the kinetics shows up in the imaginary part c " of the complex specific heat. Theoretical analysis predicts and experiments confirm that c " increases linearly with the underlying mean heating rate and the modulation period. Furthermore, it can be shown that c " is inversely related to the superheating effective during melting. Use of the relation yields for syndiotactic polypropylene values in agreement with direct measurements employing conventional d.s.c.