Grammar Case

Grammar Case is a system of linguistic analysis focusing on the link between the valence, or number of subjects, objects, etc of a verb and the grammatical context it requires.

The system was created by the American linguist Charles Fillmore in 1968 in the context of transformational grammar. This theory analyzes the surface syntactic structure of sentences by studing the combination of deep cases. Agent, Object, Benefactor, Location or Instrument which are required by a specific verb.

Grammatical Cases

Charles J Fillmore is an American linguist and Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at the University of Caliornia, Berkeley.

Dr. Fillmore has been extremely influential in the areas of syntax and lexical semantics. He was a proponent of Chomsky's theory of generative grammar during its earliest transformational grammar phase. He was one of the founder of cognitive linguistics, and developed the theories of Case Grammar.

He was one of the first linguists to introduce a representation of linguistic knowledge that blurred this strong disctintion between syntactic and semantic knowledge of a language.

Theoretical Work

Hjelmslev published his first paper at the age of 25. His first major book, Principies de grammaire generale, which he finished in 1928, is an invaluable source for anyone interested in Hjelmslev work. During the 1930's Hjelmslev wrote another book.

The Linguistic circle of Copenhagen

The Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen was founded by Hjelmslev and a group of Danish colleagues on September 24, 1931. Their main inspiration was the Prague Linguistic Circle, which had been founded in 1926. It was, in the first place, a forum for discussion of theoretical and methodological problems in linguistics. Initially, their interest lay mainly in developing an alternative concept of the phoneme, but it later developed into a complete theory which was coined glossematics, and was notably influenced by structuralism. Membership of the group grew rapidly and a significant list of publications resulted, including an irregular series of larger works.

Louis Hjelmslev

He was a Danish Linguist whose ideas formed the basis of the Copenhagen School of linguistics. Born into an academic family he studied comparative linguistics in Copenhagen, Prague and Paris.

 

In 1931 he founded founded the Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague. Together with Hans Jørgen Uldall he developed a structural theory of language which he called glossematics, which developed the semiotic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure. Glossematics as a theory of language is characterized by a high degree of formalism, it is interested only in describing the formal characteristics of language, and a high degree of logical rigour.

Cognitive Linguistics

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 Functional Grammar aiming to combine the ideas of Hjelmsley and Brondal, and other important Danish linguist such as Paul Diderichsen and Otto Jespersen with modern functional linguistcs.

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 the basic work of the school is "Danish Functional Grammar"

The Copenhagen School

The Copenhagen School, officially the "Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen" was a group of scholars dedicated to the study of structural linguistics founded by Louis Hjelmsley and Viggo Brondal. In the mid 20th century was one of the important centers of linguistic structuralism together with the Geneva School and the Prague School.

The Copenhagen School of Linguistics evolved around Louis Hjelmsley and his development theory of language glossematics. Together with Viggo Brondal he founded the Cercle Linguistique de Copenhagen a group of linguistics based on the model of the Prague Linguistic Circle.