Abstract: In 1993, Gross proposed the concept of local grammar to address the needs of natural language processing. Later, Sinclair integrated local grammar with meaning theories, providing a fresh perspective and approach to language analysis. Over the past three decades, local grammar has shown a trend toward diversification in its application development. This article reviews the development of local grammar, with a focus on analyzing its theoretical mechanisms, sorting through typical application paradigms, and discussing its advantages and limitations in both theory and practice. This article argues that local grammar expands and extends theories such as collocation and extended units of meaning, demonstrating significant generalizability, interpretability, and operability in language analysis and practical applications. However, as a novel approach to language analysis, the intrinsic challenges of local grammar remain to be addressed, the connectivity of different application paradigms still needs to be realized, and the potential for further development in the field of language research has yet to be fully explored. In the future, it will be essential to clarify the theoretical position of local grammar and resolve practical issues in its operation in order to expand the research scope of local grammar continuously.