Henri Frei
SwedenBiography of Henri Frey
Henri Frey was a Swiss linguist, professor, and one of the representatives of the Geneva School. He completed his education at the University of Geneva in 1921, where he was a student of Charles Bally. Later, he studied Japanese and Hindi at the School of Living Eastern Languages in Paris. In 1929, he obtained his doctorate from the University of Geneva for his original research on theoretical linguistics titled "Grammar of Errors".
Frey taught in Beijing (1933-1934) and Tokyo (1934-1938), and worked in Hong Kong (1938-1939). From 1940, he was a professor at the University of Geneva, where he taught comparative grammar, Sanskrit, and general linguistics. He served as the secretary of the Geneva Linguistics Society from 1940 to 1945 and was one of the publishers of the journal "Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure".
Although Frey's number of publications was relatively small, their topics were diverse, including the French language, Eastern languages which he had a good knowledge of, and other linguistic problems. He is primarily known in the history of linguistics for his early (and only) book, "Grammar of Errors" (1929, translated into Russian in 2006). In this book, Frey pioneered the comprehensive study of linguistic "errors" (more accurately, deviations from what is considered linguistic norms). He not only declared deviations from norms as a legitimate object of study, comparable to normative texts, but also provided a classification of "errors" and offered functional explanations for their occurrence.
Frey emphasized that deviations from norms are inevitable consequences of language change and reflect the speakers' need for new linguistic means in place of the old ones. His statement that "errors are not made for pleasure" became famous in subsequent years.
Frey's views on language as a whole were shaped within the framework of the Geneva School of structuralism, particularly influenced by Charles Bally. However, his "Grammar of Errors" remains a unique experience, the significance of which goes beyond the scope of structuralist (synchronic-static) understanding of language. In a sense, Frey can be considered a precursor to modern functional-cognitive "speech linguistics" and corpus-based research methods.
Publications:
- "La grammaire des fautes: Introduction à la linguistique fonctionnelle" (1929), translated into Russian as "Grammar of Errors" (Moscow, 2006) with a preface by V.M. Alpatov and a bibliography of Frey's works.
- "Sossure contre Sossure: Articles from Different Years" (Moscow, 2006), a collection of translated selected works.
