The book explores two significant traditions in Modern English grammar: the traditional 'old grammar' from influential figures like Sweet and Quirk, and the contemporary 'new grammar' rooted in Chomskyan generative syntax. It aims to enhance understanding of Modern English grammar by examining both approaches, advocating for a recognition of the diversity and complexity within the language. The work encourages a balanced appreciation of these differing grammatical perspectives.
H. Poutsma (1856-1937) is still well known among students of English grammar and its history; mainly, often exclusively, because of his monumental Grammar of Late Modern English . The present monograph extends the canonical basis for appraisal of Poutsma's achievements: Final Words is the first report on work of Poutsma's that has remained unpublished, and thus so far essentially unknown. Apart from ample information on Poutsma and his Dictionary , Final Words initiates interpretation. In argumentation from a range of perspectives, the main line is that in his experimental Dictionary culminates Poutsma's discomfort with respect to orthodox grammar and its preconception of generalization; which anticipates in salient ways some recent developments towards individualization in comprehensive descriptions of English and of languages in general.