analysing texts or corpora of different languages, aims to establish a universal model of the inner workings of language by comparing the underlying meta-structures of a given language to others. Rather than separate fields of study, Hjelmslev regarded phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicology and semantics as part of the same apparatus. By ‘phonetics’ and ‘semantics’ Hjelmslev means unorganised sound and meaning. Instead, a linguist must study expression and content, the systematised organisation of form and meaning of a given language which is to be deduced from the research material. As manifested by subsequent models of structural grammar, but also to an extent by generative grammar, units of a given level are collected into inventories (e.g. word classes, phrase types, etc.). Glossematics is then meant to become a device which can correctly predict all grammatical sentences of any language. Hjelmslev's idea later came to be associated with Noam Chomsky who used a modification of it made by his PhD supervisor Zellig Harris. Hjelmslev's fame however continues in semiotics, and in functional linguistics where his idea is incorporated into modern grammatical models including systemic functional linguistics and Danish functional linguistics. Formalism versus functionalism Glossematics earned the nickname formalism or formal linguistics after the publication of Hjelmslev’s Prolegomena to a Theory of Language (Danish original published in 1943 with subsequent English and French translations). Some members of the Prague School disagreed with Hjelmslev’s use of the word function in his meaning ’dependency’ or ’link’ in a chain of dependencies which is distant from the Praguian concept of the functions of language. Glossematics is a proper structuralist model in that it examines the interaction of the content level and the expression level. Nonetheless, the formalist epithet can be considered appropriate from different perspectives. For one, Hjelmslev considered linguistics as a formal science. For another, his approach to phonology was based on criteria of distribution, alternatives and other structural features of the system in a rejection of psychological definitions of the phoneme and definitions based on phonetic substance. He also believed that general linguistics should be the study of language as an autonomous system disregarding extralinguistic factors. See also The Copenhagen School of Linguistics Formal logic Phonology Structural linguistics Theory of language Notes References Hjelmslev, Louis (1928). Principes de grammaire générale. Copenhague: Bianco Lundo. Hjelmslev, Louis (1935/37). Catégorie des cas (2 volumes). Acta Jutlandica VII, IX. Hjelmslev, Louis (1953[1943]). Prolegomena to a Theory of Language. Baltimore: