Jens Otto Harry Jespersen (; 16 July 1860 – 30 April 1943) was a Danish

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

who specialized in the

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes doma ...

of the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

. Steven Mithen described him as "one of the greatest language scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."

Early life

Otto Jespersen was born in

Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 62,802 (as of 1 January 2022).Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

. He was inspired by the work of Danish philologist Rasmus Rask as a boy, and with the help of Rask's grammars taught himself some Icelandic, Italian, and Spanish. He entered the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

in 1877 when he was 17, initially studying law but not forgetting his language studies. In 1881 he shifted his focus completely to languages, and in 1887 earned his master's degree in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, with English and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

as his secondary languages. He supported himself during his studies through part-time work as a schoolteacher and as a shorthand reporter in the Danish parliament. In 1887–1888, he traveled to England, Germany and France, meeting linguists like

Henry Sweet Henry Sweet (15 September 1845 – 30 April 1912) was an English philologist, phonetician and grammarian.''Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language'', as hosted oencyclopedia.com/ref> As a philologist, he specialized in the Germanic l ...

and

Paul Passy Paul Édouard Passy (; 13 January 1859, Versailles21 March 1940, Bourg-la-Reine) was a French linguist, founder of the International Phonetic Association in 1886. He took part in the elaboration of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Early life ...

and attending lectures at institutions like

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. Following the advice of his mentor Vilhelm Thomsen, he returned to Copenhagen in August 1888 and began work on his doctoral dissertation on the English

case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component * Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books * Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to ca ...

system. He successfully defended his dissertation in 1891.

Academic life and work

Jespersen was a professor of English at the University of Copenhagen from 1893 to 1925, and served as Rector of the university in 1920–21. His early work focused primarily on language teaching reform and on phonetics, but he is best known for his later work on syntax and on language development. He advanced the theories of ''Rank'' and ''

Nexus NEXUS is a joint Canada Border Services Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection-operated Trusted Traveler and expedited border control program designed for pre-approved, low-risk travelers. Members of the program can avoid waits at border ...

'' in Danish in two papers: ''Sprogets logik'' (1913) and ''De to hovedarter af grammatiske forbindelser'' (1921). Jespersen in this theory of ranks removes the parts of speech from the syntax, and differentiates between primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries; e.g. in "''well honed phrase''," "phrase" is a primary, this being defined by a secondary, "honed", which again is defined by a tertiary "well". The term ''Nexus'' is applied to sentences, structures similar to sentences and sentences in formation, in which two concepts are expressed in one unit; e.g., ''it rained, he ran indoors''. This term is qualified by a further concept called a ''junction'' which represents one idea, expressed by means of two or more elements, whereas a nexus combines two ideas. Junction and nexus proved valuable in bringing the concept of context to the forefront of the attention of the world of linguistics. He was most widely recognized for some of his books. ''Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin'' (1922) is considered by many to be his masterpiece. ''Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles'' (1909–1949), concentrated on morphology and syntax, and ''Growth and Structure of the English Language'' (1905) is a comprehensive view of English by someone with another native language, and still in print, over 70 years after his death and more than 100 years after publication. Late in his life he published ''Analytic Syntax'' (1937), in which he presents his views on syntactic structure using an idiosyncratic shorthand notation. In ''The Philosophy of Grammar'' (1924) he challenged the accepted views of common concepts in

and proposed corrections to the basic definitions of

grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomin ...

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not ...

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ...

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...

etc., and developed further his notions of ''Rank'' and ''Nexus''. In the 21st century this book is still used as one of the basic texts in modern

structural linguistics Structural linguistics, or structuralism, in linguistics, denotes schools or theories in which language is conceived as a self-contained, self-regulating semiotic system whose elements are defined by their relationship to other elements within t ...

. ''Mankind, Nation and Individual: from a linguistic point of view'' (1925) is one of the pioneering works on

sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on language. It can overlap with the sociology of ...

. Jespersen visited the United States twice: he lectured at the Congress of Arts and Sciences in St. Louis in 1904, and in 1909–1910 he visited both the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. While in the U.S., he took occasion to study the country's educational system. His autobiography (see below) was published in English translation as recently as 1995. After his retirement in 1925, Jespersen remained active in the international linguistic community. In addition to continuing to write, he convened and chaired the first International Meeting on Linguistic Research in Geneva in 1930, and acted as president of the Fourth International Congress of Linguists in Copenhagen in 1936. Jespersen was an important figure in the international language movement. He was an early supporter of the

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communic ...

offshoot Ido and in 1928 published his own project

Novial Novial is a constructed international auxiliary language (IAL) for universal human communication between speakers of different native languages. It was devised by Otto Jespersen, a Danish linguist who had been involved in the Ido movement tha ...

. He also worked with the

International Auxiliary Language Association The International Auxiliary Language Association, Inc. (IALA) was an American organisation founded in 1924 to "promote widespread study, discussion and publicity of all questions involved in the establishment of an auxiliary language, together wi ...

. Jespersen received honorary degrees from Columbia University in New York (1910), St. Andrews University in Scotland (1925), and the Sorbonne in Paris (1927). He was one of the first six international scholars to be elected as honorary members of the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: '' Language'' ...

. He was elected a foreign member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

in 1931.

Bibliography

* 1889: ''The articulations of speech sounds represented by means of analphabetic symbols''. Marburg: Elwert. * * 1899: ''Fonetik: En systematisk Fremstilling af Læren om Sproglyd''. Copenhagen: Schubothe * 1904: ''How to teach a foreign language''. London: S. Sonnenschein & Co
1928 printing
available online through OpenLibrary.org. * 1905: ''Growth and Structure of the English Language'' () * 1909–1949: ''A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles'' (in seven volumes; the title should be understood as 'A grammar of Modern English') originally published by Carl Winter, Heidelberg, later vols. by Ejnar Munksgard, Copenhagen and George Allen & Unwin, London () (Vols. 5–7, issued without series title, have imprint: Copenhagen, E. Munksgaard, 1940–49; Imprint varies: Pt.5–6: London: Allen & Unwin; pt.7: Copenhagen: Munksgaard, London: Allen & Unwin.) * 1922

() * 1924: ''The Philosophy of Grammar'' () * 1925: ''Mankind, nation and individual: from a linguistic point of view''. H. Aschehoug (det Mallingske bogtryk.), 1925 * 1928
''An International Language''
(the introduction of the Novial language) * 1930
''Novial Lexike''
Novial to English, French and German dictionary. * 1933: ''Essentials of English Grammar'' * 1937: ''Analytic Syntax'' () * 1938: ''En sprogmands levned'', Copenhagen, Jespersen's autobiography * 1941: ''Efficiency in linguistic change'' * 1993: ''A literary miscellany: proceedings of the Otto Jespersen Symposium April 29–30'', edited by

Jørgen Erik Nielsen Jørgen Erik Nielsen, Dr. Phil. (23 September 1933 – 10 January 2007) was an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen. Nielsen graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1959. In 1976 he was awarded the D.Phil. degree for a ...

and Arne Zettersten 1994 * 1995: ''A Linguist's Life'': an English translation of Otto Jespersen's autobiography, edited by Arne Juul, Hans Frede Nielsen and

, Odense ()

Essays and articles (selected)

''What is the use of phonetics?''
in: ''Educational Review'' (February 1910) * ''Nature and Art in Language'', in: ''American Speech'' 5 (1929), pp. 89ff

in: ''Linguistica'' (1933)

References

External links