Louis Hjelmslev

Louis Trolle Hjelmslev (Danish: [ˈjelˀmsle̝w]; 3 October 1899 – 30 May 1965) was a Danish linguist whose ideas formed the basis of the Copenhagen School of linguistics. Born into an academic family (his father was the mathematician Johannes Hjelmslev), Hjelmslev studied comparative linguistics in Copenhagen, Prague and Paris (with Antoine Meillet and Joseph Vendryes, among others). In 1931, he founded the Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague. Together with Hans Jørgen Uldall he developed a structuralist theory of language which he called glossematics, which further developed the semiotic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure. Glossematics as a theory of language is characterized by a high degree of formalism. It is interested in describing the formal and semantic characteristics of language in separation from sociology, psychology or neurobiology, and has a high degree of logical rigour. Hjelmslev regarded linguistics – or glossematics – as a formal science. He was the inventor of formal linguistics.^[1] Hjelmslev's theory became widely influential in structural and functional grammar, and in semiotics.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

^ Seuren, Pieter A. M. (1998). Western linguistics: An historical introduction. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 160–167. ISBN 0-631-20891-7.
^ Fischer-Jørgensen, Eli. "Louis Hjelmslev". Den Store Danske Encyklopædi (in Danish). Gyldendal.
^ Whitfield, Francis J. (1966). "Louis Hjelmslev". Language. 42 (3): 615–619. JSTOR 411413.
^ Butler, Christopher S. (2003). Structure and Function: A Guide to Three Major Structural-Functional Theories, part 1 (PDF). John Benjamins. pp. 121–124. ISBN 9781588113580. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
^ Nöth, Winfried (1990). Handbook of Semiotics (PDF). Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20959-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-03-08. Retrieved 2020-03-01.