JENNA STEINER The Glossematic School of Linguistics (Fudge, 1995) 1

History of Glossematic Movement 2 Louis Hjelmslev, Denmark, 1920s- 1950s Developed from Saussure: “importance of the units of a language is that they are distinct from one another, rather than that they exhibit particular concrete properties” (262)  went further to develop universal framework Criticized Prague phonology: too“phonetic”, focus on phonemes Collaborated with Hans Jorgen Uldall on “An Outline of Glossematics”, ultimately parted ways

Four Characteristics of Logical Positivism 3 1.) Metaphysical sentences= meaningless -against idea that language can’t be treated same as other sciences because of “human factor” 2.) Deductive reasoning -account for as much as you can using deduction from as few initial assumptions as possible 3.) Structural statements >statements of content -compare two colors 4.) Scientific language = unambiguously defined -develop algebra

Form and Substance (Logical Priority of Form) 4 According to Saussure, sounds and ideas are “formless masses” only conceptualized by having form superimposed on them According to Glossematicians, the form of a particular language acts on purport to produce substance; therefore, there can be no substance unless form has done its work Purport: whole range of possibilities (e.g. sounds, colors) Substance: range actually used (language specific) a.) content-substance (meanings/morphosyntactic properties) b.) content-form (syntactic, lexical structure) c.) expression-form (phonology, writing) d.) expression-substance (phonetics)

Analytical Procedures of Glossematics 5 1.) Discover expression units and content units by looking at the relationships between them and the properties of substance (I) 2.) Describe expression/content units in relation to each other without reference to substance (I) 3.) Hypothesize a system based on these units and relationships (I) 4.) Repeat for as many languages as possible (I) (I = inductive)

Analytical Procedures of Glossematics 6 5.)Estimate from the total relations actually found in the language to the total number of theoretical relations (D) 6.) Use theoretically possible relations to contribute to “system of language” (universal) (D) 7.) Characterize each language based on the relations it has “selected” (this helps revise 3) *These steps would have been rejected by American Structuralists (inductive only) (D=deductive)

Basic Relations in Glossematics 7 Paradigmatic = both/and Syntagmatic = either/or

Togeby (1965): The Procedure Exemplified 8 French: Description of Expression Syntagmatic subsection “phonotactics” (substance?) -e.g. word accent (tonal elements, does not apply) or syllables Paradigmatic subsection “phonology” (form?) -e.g. phonemes, accents, consonants and vowels French: Description of content Syntagmatic subsection “syntax” (form?) -17 operations from sentence to morphemes -e.g. stem: root and derivational marker, clause nucleus: subject and predicate Paradigmatic subsection “morphology” (substance?) - derivational markers: prefixes, suffixes, non-finite verb