ABSTRACT
In reviewing the syntactic treatments of the handbooks it is difficult to forget Hirt's poignant expression: "One assembles a series of facts but doesn't know what to do with them" (1931-4: III: vi). Many syntactic treatments were produced in the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century for the Indo-European dialects. Speyer treated in separate volumes the syntax of Vedic and of Classical Sanskrit. For the syntax of Greek we may limit ourselves at this point to citing Schwyzer's grammar (1939-50), which was based on four earlier editions, the fourth by Brugmann. Similarly, Szantyr's syntax of Latin (1965) has numerous predecessors; and capable, if not as extensive, treatments of the syntax of other dialects, as well as many monographs and articles on selected syntactic problems, might be cited. Further, after numerous earlier publications Delbruck provided a synthesis for the proto-language in his three-volume contribution to the Grundriss (1893-1900).
