Louis Hjelmslev

Hjelmslev formalized Saussurean structural linguistics into a more rigorous theory of expression and content planes, each with form and substance. Eco, Greimas, and Deleuze all build on his apparatus.

¶Core ideas

• Expression and content planes: the sign as a relation between two stratified planes
• Form and substance: every plane has formal structure and material substance
• Connotative semiotics: a semiotic system whose expression plane is itself another semiotic

¶Key works

• Prolegomena to a Theory of Language (1943)