Final words

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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basis for appraisal of Poutsma's achievements: Final Words is the first report on work of Poutsma's that has remained unpublished, and thus so far essentially unknown.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.