1. LINGUISTIC
THEORY II
Te a m M e m be r s :
Jo h a n a Sá n c h e z
H e rn á n dez .
Oz i e l E s te ba n
Juá re z Ga rcí a
G a bri e la Ca s t ro
Fe rn a nda
Gema

2. ‘THE
COPENHAGEN
SCHOOL’

3. INTRODUCTION
The Copenha gen School, officially
the "Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen
(Cercle Linguistique de Copenha gue )",
was a group of schola rs dedicated to the
study of structural linguistics founded
by Louis Hjelmslev and Viggo Brøndal
In the mid twentieth centur y the
Copenhagen school was one of the most
importa nt centers of linguistic
structuralism together with the Geneva
School and the Prague School.

4. Louis Hjelmslev (1899–1965), Danish
linguist and semiotician, author of an
original theory of verbal and other sign
systems called glossematics, which attempts
to radicalize Ferdinand de Saussure's claim
that language is form rather than substance.
According to glossematics, any scientific
study of language must analyze language as
a hierarchy of interrelated formal functions.
The analysis of any concrete linguistic
element is carried out as a calculus of
combinations of such functions. Due to their
general character, the theoretical
foundations and methodological principles
of glossematics have had a greater impact
in semiotics than in linguistics. This
theoretical approach is identified with the
Copenhagen School of linguistics.
Louis
Hjelmslev

5. In his general grammar, Hjelmslev tries to articulate the basic
principles for a description of language as form. The grammar
itself is a system of forms from which the specific forms of any
natural language can be generated. These forms are obtained
inductively from an analysis of the syntactical chain. Although his
book on case foregrounds morphology and semantics, Hjelmslev
still attempts to isolate a few formal features from which all
possible manifestations of case can be constructed through
calculated combinations. The center of a given case
system, called an intensive case, is established inductively, but it
acquires its status as a true linguistic element only through the
system to which it belongs. Such systems of interrelated elements
function according to two general language -specific structural
principles:
 The differences between the elements are more fundamental
than the elements themselves; and
 The elements enter into the system through participation —that
is, certain cases, called extensive cases, can absorb or take
over the role of the intensive cases, or they might occupy a
neutral position, being alternatively extensive and intensive.

6. These two early works are
examples of a structural but
preglossematic linguistics:
they try to develop a
description of language as
an immanent system of
forms, though it is based on
elements that are identified
through induction—that is,
on a nonformal basis.

7. Hj el ms l ev 's i mportanc e i n s emi oti c s i s a
res ul t of hi s ri gorous attempt to turn
Saus sure's heterogenous and s omewhat
flexible structural i s m i nto a theory of
max i mal ex pl i c i tness and c onc eptual
homogenei ty on al l l ev el s . Moreov er, hi s
wi ll i ngness to rec ons i der, al bei t s omewhat
rel uc tantl y, the formal l i mi ts of hi s theory
s ets the s tandard for any s eri ous s emi oti c
res earc h.

8. Their main
Inspiration was
the Prague
Linguistic
Circle, which
had been
founded in 1926.
The Linguistic
Circle of
Copenhagen It was, in the first place,
a forum for discussion
of theoretical and
methodological problem
Initially, their interest
s in linguistics.
lay mainly in developing
an alternative concept
of the phoneme, but it
later developed into a Membership of the group grew
rapidly and a significant list of
complete theory which
publications resulted, including an
was coined irregular series of larger works under
glossematics, and was the
notably influenced by name Travaux du Cercle Linguistique
de Copenhague.
structuralism.

9. The princip al ideas of the school are:
 A language consists of content and expression
 A language consists of a successio n and a system
 Content and expression are intercon nected by
commutation.
 There are certain relation s in the succession and the
system.
 There are no one -to -on e correspon den ts between
content and expression , but the signs may be divided
into smaller co mpo nen ts.

10. The Copenhagen School of Linguistics
evolved around Louis Hjelmslev and
his developing theory of LOUIS
language, glossematics. Together with HJELMSLEY
Viggo Brødal he founded the Cercle
Linguistique de Copenhague a group
of linguists based on the model of the
Prague Linguistic Circle.

11. Within the circle the ideas of Brøndal
and Hjelmslev were not always
compatible and Hjelmslevs more
formalist approach attracted a group
of followers, principal among them
Hans Jørgen Uldall and Eli Fischer
Jørgensen, who would strive to apply
Hjelmslevs abstract ideas of the
nature of language to analyses of
actual linguistic data.

12. In the mid twentieth century the Copenhagen school
was one of the most important centers of linguistic
structuralism together with the Geneva School
and the Prague School.
In 1989 a group of members of the Copenhagen
Linguistic circle inspired by the advances in
cognitive linguistics and the functionalist theories of
Simon C. Dik founded the School of Danish.

13. Functional Grammar aiming to
combine the ideas of Hjelmslev
and Brøndal, and other
important Danish linguists such
as Paul Diderichsen and Otto
Jespersen with modern
functional linguistics.
Among the prominent members of
this new generation of the
Copenhagen School of Linguistics
were Peter Harder, Elisabeth
Engberg Petersen, Frans
Gregersen and Michael
Fortescue, and he basic work of
the school is "Danish Functional
Grammar."

14. Establishes a Danish
framework for Functional
understanding Grammar
communication as a (1989)
formal system.
Development of
terminology to describe founded
parts of linguistic Geneva
systems and their Linguistic School and
interrelatedness The Copenhagen School Structuralism Prague
«The Circle of School
- Language consist of Copenhagen»
content and expression.
- Language consiste of a founders
succession and system.
-Content and expression
are interconected by Louis Viggo Formal properties
communication. Hjelmslev Brøndal of a system should
There are certain be kept apart from
relations in the its substance
succession as the Hans Jorgen
Glossemantics Uldall and Eli
system.
(the double Fisher and
duality of the Jorgensenv
linguistic sign)
Saussure
and older
traditions