This text investigates the structural evolution of the German language from its earliest recorded forms to its modern syntactic configuration. W. B. Lockwood, a noted scholar in Germanic philology, utilizes a comparative historical framework to trace the development of sentence structure, word order, and grammatical dependencies. The work synthesizes evidence from Old, Middle, and Early New High German texts to demonstrate the systematic shifts that define the language's syntactic history.

Scholars and students of Germanic linguistics frequently cite this work as a reliable reference for understanding the diachronic development of German syntax. The text is noted for its technical precision and is considered a foundational resource for those engaged in advanced philological research.