This volume investigates the structural principles of English syntax by tracing the historical evolution of grammatical forms. Otto Jespersen, a renowned linguist, utilizes a vast corpus of historical texts to demonstrate how English syntax shifted from synthetic to analytic structures over several centuries. The work provides a rigorous framework for understanding the logical development of sentence construction in the English language.

Linguists and scholars frequently cite this series as a foundational reference for the study of historical English syntax. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which requires a high level of familiarity with linguistic terminology.