An Historical Syntax of the English Language: Volume I: Syntactical Units with One Verb

Published in 1963, An Historical Syntax of the English Language represents a monumental effort by Dutch linguist F.Th. Visser to chart the evolution of English grammatical structures. Visser dedicated decades to this exhaustive study, aiming to categorize and explain the development of syntactic units from the Old English period through the modern era. The first volume focuses specifically on constructions centered around a single verb, providing an unparalleled level of detail for scholars investigating the mechanics of linguistic change over a millennium.

The design of the work reflects the rigorous academic standards of mid-twentieth-century philology. Visser employed a systematic, diachronic approach, meticulously citing hundreds of primary texts to illustrate the progression of verbal syntax. While the work is dense and specialized, it was received by the linguistic community as a definitive reference tool. It remains a foundational, albeit highly technical, resource for historical linguists who require a granular examination of the transition from synthetic to analytic syntactic patterns in the English language.