Abstract
Hjelmslev rightly signalizes the ambiguity that lies in the term “function” as it has hitherto been used in science, “where it designates both the dependence between two terminals and one or both of these terminals — the latter when the one terminal is said to be ”a function of“ the other” (OSG p. 32). To avoid this ambiguity in modern terminology Hjelmslev introduces the technical term “functive” to denote the terminal of a function, reserving “function” for “the dependence between two terminals” only, no longer using it for those terminals themselves 1). In this way he goes back, rightly, in my opinion, to the old analysis of the notion of relation (relatio-fundamentum-terminus).
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References
L. Hjelmslev and H. J. Uldall, Etudes de linguistique structurale organisées au sein du Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague. Bulletin du Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague II, 1935, p. 13–15.
Actes IV Congrès International des Linguistes, 1936, p. 140–145.
Proceedings of the Third International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 1938, p. 266–272.
Archiv für Vergleichende Phonetik II, 1938, p. 129 ff.
Nordisk Tidsskrift for Tale og Stemme, 2e Aargang, 10, Juni 1938, p. 153 ff. ’) Rapports V Congrès Intern. des Linguistes, 1939, p. 66–93.
L. Hjelmslev, Structural Analysis of Language. Studia Linguistica I p. 69 ff. ’) Structural Analysis of Language, Studia Linguistica I, 1947, p. 69–78.
I. a.: L. Hjelmslev, On the Principles of Phonematics, Proceedings II Int. Congr. of Phonetic Sc. London 1935 p. 49–54. Id., Accent, Intonation, Quantité, Studi Baltici VI, 1936–37 p. 1–57. Id., La syllabation en slave, Mélanges… Aleksander Belió, Beograd 1937, p. 315–324. Id, The Syllable as a Structural Unit, Proceedings III Int. Congr. Phonetic Sc., Ghent 1938, p. 266–272.
The Syllable as a Structural unit. Proceedings III Intern. Congr. Phon. Sc., Ghent 1938, p. 266. Cf. Pike’s “phonemic syllable”, Phonemics p. 90b.
See for a short description of the development of Hjelmslev’sconceptof ‘syllable’: Togeby, Structure immanente de la langue française, p. 48.
Togeby has noticed the circle in the definitions of the syllable and the accent too: see p. 75.
L. Hjelmslev, On the Principles of Phonematics. Proc. TI Intern. Congr. o f Phon. Sc., London, 1935, p. 52.
Hjelmslev, On the Principles of Phonematics, 1935, p. 52.
The difference between phonemes being a natural acoustic datum, while between the two sets of phonemes that we call ‘vowels’ and `cónsonants’ there is again a “natural maximal acoustic contrast”. Thus “the sequence of vowels and consonants necessarily results in the syllable” (Reichling, De Taal, haar Wetten en haar Wesen, ENSIE II, 1947, p. 40, translation and italics mine).
Definitions of the syllable are given, among others, by D. Jones, An Outline of English Phonetics, 1948, p. 54.
His definition of the syllable corresponds to Pike’s phonetic syllable which contains, according to him “a single chest pulse and a single peak of sonority or prominence” (Phonemics, p. 61). See, however, his definitions in Phonetics, p. 108, 116, 117, (1943). Pike’s definition in Phonemics is taken over by Miss Fischer-Jergensen, On the Definition of Phoneme Categories, Acta Linguistica VII, p. 16 (1952).
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© 1965 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Holland
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Siertsema, B. (1965). Function, Form, and Their Frame of Reference. In: A Study of Glossematics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-8796-1_6
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