Glossematics

Glossematics is the rigorous study of language at the level of its most basic unit or component which carries meaning, the glosseme. The term was coined by Louis Hjelmslev and Hans Jørgen Uldall as a neologism combining glossary with mathematics to indicate a formalized system of study. The ultimate goal of the linguist who studies glossemes is the same as that of a physicist who studies atoms, to wit a more perfect understanding of the whole through a thorough study of the structure of the constituent parts. To the greatest extent possible, glossematics seeks to take a tabula rasa approach, constructing an internally consistent framework of axioms and principles with minimal reliance on external terms. It is an abstracting form of structuralism, concerned with how "functives" describe relationships among "terminals" rather than with words themselves. This system, constructed without recourse to any particular language or constructivist modality, seeks to establish a universal standard defining the necessary and sufficient conditions of language.