This volume investigates the historical development and structural mechanics of English syntax to explain the evolution of modern grammatical usage. Otto Jespersen, a renowned Danish linguist, utilizes a vast corpus of historical texts to trace how English sentence structures shifted from earlier periods into their contemporary forms. He argues that language is a living, changing entity governed by logical principles that can be observed through rigorous diachronic analysis.

Linguists and scholars frequently cite this work as a foundational text for understanding the historical development of English syntax. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which requires a high level of familiarity with linguistic terminology to fully comprehend the author's arguments.