Abstract

The Perfect Philologist

The article focuses on the book, "The Philosophy of Grammar," by Otto Jespersen. His latest work, "The Philosophy of Grammar," is no exception. In it he reviews the usual practices of grammarians, presents his own views, and illustrates them with an abundance of quotations drawn from a number of languages, but chiefly from English. His main purpose is to discover the principles underlying the grammar of all languages, and thus to lay a solid foundation for the grammatical study of any language. In practice, however, he limits himself pretty strictly to the Indo-European group, to the great comfort of most readers, who would not care to follow him much farther afield. The book is, therefore, both prolegomena to his own "Modern English Grammar," which is already a philological classic, although only two volumes have so far been published, and a general introduction to the study of syntax.