What do you think?
Rate this book
Prolegomena to a Theory of Language
with dust jacket
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1943
10 people are currently reading
327 people want to read
About the author
Louis Hjelmslev
37Ìýbooks14ÌýfollowersLouis Hjelmslev (Copenhagen, 1899-1965) is the author of a theory of language called glossematics, which inspired a great number of European semioticians. As a linguist, he was part of the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen and was influential in the rapid development of scientific structuralism in the 1930s.
Semiotics has taken a great many concepts from him, some of which were theorized by Ferdinand de Saussure and then refined by Hjelmslev, including semiotics, expression, content, form, substance and usage. To these he added certain concepts specific to glossematics, such as neutral (term), complex (term), connotative (semiotic), metasemiotic, norm, and matter or text.
His work is not easy to understand, and this is due as much to the unstable editorial and philological context as it is to the highly abstract nature of the theory and the formalized presentation of his writings. That does not make it any less essential for anyone who wants to learn about the theoretical dimension of semiotics
Semiotics has taken a great many concepts from him, some of which were theorized by Ferdinand de Saussure and then refined by Hjelmslev, including semiotics, expression, content, form, substance and usage. To these he added certain concepts specific to glossematics, such as neutral (term), complex (term), connotative (semiotic), metasemiotic, norm, and matter or text.
His work is not easy to understand, and this is due as much to the unstable editorial and philological context as it is to the highly abstract nature of the theory and the formalized presentation of his writings. That does not make it any less essential for anyone who wants to learn about the theoretical dimension of semiotics
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 23, 2015
With this, Hjelmslev seeks to provide a procedural view of linguistic generation. He provides a two tier distinction between expression and content, as two independent algebras that can shift. However much language shares this formulation of form and content, Hjelmslev points out that the two are not mutually exclusive; they shift around their own logics but coexist with the same glossemes.
Much of what makes this book so confusing is that Hjelmslev seems unable to concisely characterize what he wants to express. He gives plenty of examples, but the logic of his day was not as refined as it is now. Hjelmslev is after a formalism of expressing procedure. The relations inherent within language and all semiotic systems he sees as a generative plane of its own logical shifts. This logic is transformative but lacking "substance" since there is no rigid signification that provides an absolutely stable point. Instead, the shifts inherent within linguistic transformation occur on their own paradigmatic plane. These relations are positional concurrences that link glossemes at a metasemiotic level.
Hjelmslev sees language as being the key to unlocking all logics, although each language and non-language system would contain their own logic. This approach, Hjelmslev predicts, operates on its own inherent plane but has these metasemiotic kinds of organizations inherent to each domain. Yet he doesn't see each metasemiotic domain has having its own inherent truth; he finds their shifts and transformations to be based off contextual hooks that are shaped by other logics from other domains. In this way, Hjelmslev hints at but doesn't talk about the greater linguistic context by which various systems formulate as responses to their outside.
While Hjelmslev wasn't really followed in his time, he did influence Deleuze and Guattari to a great degree. His approach is interesting but this book needs some larger explication. I look forward to exploring other works of his, although they are difficult to find.
Much of what makes this book so confusing is that Hjelmslev seems unable to concisely characterize what he wants to express. He gives plenty of examples, but the logic of his day was not as refined as it is now. Hjelmslev is after a formalism of expressing procedure. The relations inherent within language and all semiotic systems he sees as a generative plane of its own logical shifts. This logic is transformative but lacking "substance" since there is no rigid signification that provides an absolutely stable point. Instead, the shifts inherent within linguistic transformation occur on their own paradigmatic plane. These relations are positional concurrences that link glossemes at a metasemiotic level.
Hjelmslev sees language as being the key to unlocking all logics, although each language and non-language system would contain their own logic. This approach, Hjelmslev predicts, operates on its own inherent plane but has these metasemiotic kinds of organizations inherent to each domain. Yet he doesn't see each metasemiotic domain has having its own inherent truth; he finds their shifts and transformations to be based off contextual hooks that are shaped by other logics from other domains. In this way, Hjelmslev hints at but doesn't talk about the greater linguistic context by which various systems formulate as responses to their outside.
While Hjelmslev wasn't really followed in his time, he did influence Deleuze and Guattari to a great degree. His approach is interesting but this book needs some larger explication. I look forward to exploring other works of his, although they are difficult to find.
September 18, 2021
Li a edição da Editora Perspectiva, que tem uma lista de definições que ajuda bastante, mas o formato do livro (altura grande, largura pequena) não é ideal.
Após ler o Curso de Saussure, parti para o Prolegômenos de Hjelmslev nessa trÃade linguÃstica de leitura que fiz no fim de 2020 - inÃcio de 2021, terminando com Gramatologia de Derrida.
A leitura dos Prolegômenos não é fácil: é necessário ir e voltar nas definições à todo o tempo. A exposição de Hjelmslev forma uma cadeia de definições formais interdependentes que inicialmente é difÃcil de tatear, mas com a progressão da leitura o domÃnio sobre os conceitos e categorias se desenvolve melhor, devido ao estilo de escrita extremamente sistemático.
Hjelmslev busca a teorização de uma linguÃstica imanente que possa se sustentar a partir de suas definições e conceitos formais, produzidos pela análise das funções dos elementos da linguagem. Os Prolegômenos não permitem um domÃnio profundo sobre a "glossemática", mas oferece uma boa introdução.
Busquei ler Hjelmslev por sua influência na análise linguÃstica de Deleuze. Inclusive, no grupo de leitura de Mil Platôs, fizemos um spin-off para discutir os Prolegômenos antes de entrarmos no platô Geologia da Moral, que busca mobilizar os conceitos de conteúdo e expressão, forma e substância, para além da linguÃstica.
O capÃtulo 13, Expressão e Conteúdo, é o momento mais importante do livro, onde Hjelmslev constrói uma teoria que supera a divisão significado-significante de Saussure, oferecendo um edifÃcio teórico brilhante para pensar linguÃstica.
Após ler o Curso de Saussure, parti para o Prolegômenos de Hjelmslev nessa trÃade linguÃstica de leitura que fiz no fim de 2020 - inÃcio de 2021, terminando com Gramatologia de Derrida.
A leitura dos Prolegômenos não é fácil: é necessário ir e voltar nas definições à todo o tempo. A exposição de Hjelmslev forma uma cadeia de definições formais interdependentes que inicialmente é difÃcil de tatear, mas com a progressão da leitura o domÃnio sobre os conceitos e categorias se desenvolve melhor, devido ao estilo de escrita extremamente sistemático.
Hjelmslev busca a teorização de uma linguÃstica imanente que possa se sustentar a partir de suas definições e conceitos formais, produzidos pela análise das funções dos elementos da linguagem. Os Prolegômenos não permitem um domÃnio profundo sobre a "glossemática", mas oferece uma boa introdução.
Busquei ler Hjelmslev por sua influência na análise linguÃstica de Deleuze. Inclusive, no grupo de leitura de Mil Platôs, fizemos um spin-off para discutir os Prolegômenos antes de entrarmos no platô Geologia da Moral, que busca mobilizar os conceitos de conteúdo e expressão, forma e substância, para além da linguÃstica.
O capÃtulo 13, Expressão e Conteúdo, é o momento mais importante do livro, onde Hjelmslev constrói uma teoria que supera a divisão significado-significante de Saussure, oferecendo um edifÃcio teórico brilhante para pensar linguÃstica.
October 8, 2014
Un libro algo complejo para aquellos que no estamos tan sumergidos en la semiótica, semiologÃa y teorÃas del lenguaje en general. Sin embargo, Hjelmslev es benévolo con el lector: da una explicación a cada nuevo término algebraico que va introduciendo a su expansiva teorÃa (funtivo, reducción, glosema, taxema). En particular, su método reductivo del lenguaje tal y cómo es explicado en los capÃtulos XII y XIII, es fascinantemente lúcido, acertando en dar al blanco al concepto de Signo por medio de la moneda-lenguaje janÃca e indisociable de contenido/expresión, reemplazando el significante, significado de Saussure de una forma más contundente.
Por el otro lado, la teorÃa aquà expuesta serÃa aparentemente retomada por varios filosófos de la corriente estructuralista/post-estructuralista, entre los cuales se encuentran Roland Barthes (para su analisis cientifico del Sistema de la Moda y que tendré que leer prontamente), Jacques Derrida (nada más claro leyendo las primeras páginas de 'De la GramatologÃa' y darse cuenta que el tipo retoma la tésis angustiada de que el fonema, phonos, ha reemplazado gravemente a la escritura o también el reductivo obsesivo del método Hjelmsleviano que tiene un aire a deconstrucción, quitar las capas, de lo general a lo minÃmo como con un bisturà hasta dejar el corazón o lo aparentemente esencial del objeto a flor de piel), Julia Kristeva (a la cuál retornaré, ya que su Semiotike 1, me dió la frÃa impresión de impenetrabilidad, sin embargo gracias a ella llegué a este libro), Deleuze & Guattari (por lo que he leÃdo no de primera sino segunda mano, con su compañero Guattari en Mil Mesetas dedican un capÃtulo a reinterpretar la glosematica y aplicarla directamente en un evento).
En resumen, si hay alguien que merece un nuevo reconocimiento en estudios del lenguaje es este tipo. Y merece varias re-lecturas a la vez para captar la figura completa de su investigación.
Por el otro lado, la teorÃa aquà expuesta serÃa aparentemente retomada por varios filosófos de la corriente estructuralista/post-estructuralista, entre los cuales se encuentran Roland Barthes (para su analisis cientifico del Sistema de la Moda y que tendré que leer prontamente), Jacques Derrida (nada más claro leyendo las primeras páginas de 'De la GramatologÃa' y darse cuenta que el tipo retoma la tésis angustiada de que el fonema, phonos, ha reemplazado gravemente a la escritura o también el reductivo obsesivo del método Hjelmsleviano que tiene un aire a deconstrucción, quitar las capas, de lo general a lo minÃmo como con un bisturà hasta dejar el corazón o lo aparentemente esencial del objeto a flor de piel), Julia Kristeva (a la cuál retornaré, ya que su Semiotike 1, me dió la frÃa impresión de impenetrabilidad, sin embargo gracias a ella llegué a este libro), Deleuze & Guattari (por lo que he leÃdo no de primera sino segunda mano, con su compañero Guattari en Mil Mesetas dedican un capÃtulo a reinterpretar la glosematica y aplicarla directamente en un evento).
En resumen, si hay alguien que merece un nuevo reconocimiento en estudios del lenguaje es este tipo. Y merece varias re-lecturas a la vez para captar la figura completa de su investigación.
January 26, 2013
Actually very in depth despite being a prolegomena.
Outlining a description of language with relations of words to each others, functions, functives etc., also parts of words.
Hjelmslev wants to avoid using terms such as 'the genitive case' because the same case is used in different contexts in different languages.
His goal is to be able to linguistically analyze any piece of written language with a logical method.
Outlining a description of language with relations of words to each others, functions, functives etc., also parts of words.
Hjelmslev wants to avoid using terms such as 'the genitive case' because the same case is used in different contexts in different languages.
His goal is to be able to linguistically analyze any piece of written language with a logical method.
August 13, 2016
que viejo enfermo
May 30, 2020
The things I do for Guattari.
Honestly, only for hardcore linguistics nerds. Proceed with caution, and not without an intimate knowledge of Saussure.
Honestly, only for hardcore linguistics nerds. Proceed with caution, and not without an intimate knowledge of Saussure.
August 22, 2023
The discovery of the Copenhagen circle was a joy for me, because it is largely forgotten and considered irrelevant now; the field of linguistics has moved on. Nevertheless, here is a theory which is formally rigorous and unites linguistic semantics and semiotics. It remains relevant and should be considered alongside Saussure, Peirce, and Barthes as potential models for semiotic theory. I found expression-content-purport to be a particularly useful formal distinction, as well as the radical notion, which is underdeveloped in Hjelmslev, that such distinctions apply to signifier as well as signified. The text is rigorous and exacting. My only criticism is that Hjelmselv continues to define terms well into the conclusion, which makes for an exhausting theory. I found the formal distinctions at the beginning of the book to be the most useful.
November 30, 2024
i understand why it's so influential and that he's given a lot of thinking into this whole exhaustive system of description but maaaan the abstractness is also exhausting and hard to imagine. i do abstract shit all the time in formal semantics but this format wasn't for me. too few examples.
May 31, 2021
Genial e impossÃvel.
Want to read
November 17, 2016note of recommendation from Thomas Holder: "The thought of the Danish linguist and son of the mathematician Johannes Hjelmslev is in many ways the intellectual culmination of structuralist linguistics inspired by de Saussure and its epistemology. Being quite familiar with the works of Russell, Hilbert, Carnap and Tarski, Hjelmslev tried to lay axiomatic foundations of linguistic structuralism in a topological ‘prelogic� which has many points of contact with the work of Lawvere on axiomatic cohesion and repays the reading even nowadays for a philosopher of mathematics, who will find there definitions of cohesion, variable, class, intensive/extensive ‘quantity�, form, substance etc."
November 13, 2016
One of the basic linguistic writings of 20th century theory & philosophy of language.
October 24, 2018
It starts easy, makes you think it's a piece of cake. Then it begins.
Read
February 1, 2018Por fin.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.