glossematics (n.)

An approach to LANGUAGE developed primarily by Louis Hjelmslev (1899–1965) and associates at the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen in the mid-1930s (the COPENHAGEN SCHOOL). The novel name was a reflection of the originality of the school’s intention to develop a theory which would be applicable, not just for language, but for general study of the humanities (‘semiology’, the study of symbolic systems in general). Language, in this view, was seen as one kind of symbolic system, whose special features would be clarified only when it was compared with other, non-linguistic symbolic systems (e.g. logic, dancing). The philosophical and logical basis of glossematic theory, especially as FORMALIZED by Hjelmslev in his Prolegomena to a Theory of Language, published in 1943, presenting language as a purely deductive system, is its most distinctive feature. The irreducible and invariant UNITS established by this procedure were called GLOSSEMES. Proponents of the theory were glossematicians.