Prolegomena to a Theory of Language

158 Pages·1961·3.265 MB·

by  Louis Hjelmslev

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PROLEGOMENA TO
A THEORY OF LANGUAGE
by Louis Hjelmslev
Translated by Francis J. Whitfield
A revised English translation of Louis
Hjelmslev’s classic work, which, when
first issued in Danish in 1943, inaugu­
rated a new kind of linguistics called
"glossematics.” Resembling symbolic
logic in its postulates, theorems, and
definitions, glossematics has been called
the only complete theory of language
| proposed in the modern world.
The Prolegomena deal essentially
j with three major related topics: the gen­
eral criteria for a theory of language
(sections 1-9); the specifics of linguis­
tic theory (sections 10-20); and the re-
| lationship of language to non-language
I (sections 21-23). Rejecting what he
I characterizes as "transcendent” defini-
| tions of language and linguistics,
j Hjelmslev presents a more purely formal
! "immanent” approach to a universal
j principle of language formation.
Louis Hjelmslev (1899-1965) was
i Professor of Linguistics at the University
! of Copenhagen, Denmark. - Francis J.
; Whitfield is Chairman of the Depart-
! ment of Slavic Languages and Litera-
I tures at the University of California,
! Berkeley.
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Prolegomena to a
Theory of Language
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PROLEGOMENA to a

Theory of Language

BY LOUIS HJELMSLEV
Translated by Francis J. Whitfield
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS
Madison, Milwaukee, and London, 1969
Published by
The University of Wisconsin Press
Box 1379, Madison, Wisconsin 53701
The University of Wisconsin Press, Ltd.
27-29 Whitfield Street, London, W. 1
Revised English Edition © 1961 by the
Regents of the University of Wisconsin
All Rights Reserved
Reprinted 1963,1969
Printed in the United States of America
SBN 299-02470-9; LC 62-7095
158836
PREFACE
The original version of the present work appeared in 1943 under
the title Omkring sprogteoriens grundlceggelse* The pagination of
that edition is given at the left margin of this volume. The
English translation was first published in 1953 as Memoir 7 of
the International Journal of American Linguistics (Indiana Uni­
versity Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics). This second,
revised edition incorporates several minor corrections and
changes that have suggested themselves in the course of discus­
sions between the author and the translator. For the develop­
ment of the theory in recent years, the reader may be referred
particularly to the author’s study La stratification du langage,
reprinted in his Essais linguistiques (Travaux du Cercle linguis-
tique de Copenhague, XII, Copenhagen, Nordisk Sprog- og
Kulturforlag, 1959), which include other articles on linguistic
theory by the same author and a complete bibliography.
L. Hj.
F.J.W.
• Festskrift udgivet of K+bcnhavns Universilel i anledning af Universitetels Aars-
fest, November 1943, pp. [3H113]; also published separately by Ejnar Munks-
gaard, Copenhagen, 1943.