Frey, Henri

He graduated from the University of Geneva (1921), a student of S. Bally ; He later studied Japanese and Hindi at the School of Oriental Languages ​​in Paris. He received his doctorate at the University of Geneva in 1929 for an original study on theoretical linguistics called "The grammar of mistakes." He taught in Beijing (1933-1934) and in Tokyo (1934-1938), worked in Hong Kong (1938-1939). Since 1940 - at the University of Geneva, Professor (1945-1969), taught comparative grammar, Sanskrit and general linguistics. Secretary of the Geneva Linguistic Society (1940-1945), one of the publishers of the journal Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure.

The number of Frey's publications is relatively small, their subjects are heterogeneous (French, Eastern languages, which he knew well, and other problems). He entered the history of linguistics primarily due to his early (and only) book The Grammar of Errors (1929, Russian translation 2006), in which he practically for the first time in linguistics turned to a serious comprehensive study of linguistic "errors" (more precisely, deviations from considered to be the language norm). The main material for this work Frey served letters from French soldiers from captivity, reflecting many of the features of French vernacular beginning of XX century.

Frey not only proclaimed violations of the language norm the same legitimate object of study as normative texts, but also gave a classification of the types of “errors” and offered functional explanations for their occurrence. His work rightly emphasizes that the violation of the norm is an inevitable consequence of changes in the language and a reflection of the need of those who speak in new language means to replace the old ones (Frey’s expression “mistakes are not made for pleasure” later became famous).

Frey's views on the language as a whole were formed within the framework of the Geneva School of Structuralism (especially under the influence of Bally), but his “Grammar of Errors” remains a unique experience, the significance of which goes far beyond the framework of a structuralist (synchronous-static) understanding of the language. In a certain sense, Frey can be considered as the forerunner of modern functional-cognitive “linguistics of speech” and corpus-based research methods.

• La grammaire des fautes: Introduction à la linguistique fonctionnelle. - 1929.
  • Russian translation : Grammar of mistakes ( M. , 2006, with the preface by V. M. Alpatov and Frey's bibliography).
• Saussure vs Saussure? Articles of different years. - M. , 2006 (collection of translations of selected works).