Zellig S. Harris

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Zellig Sabbetai Harris (born October 23, 1909 in Balta , Russian Empire , † May 22, 1992 in New York City , USA ) was an American linguist and information theorist .

On scientific importance

Among other things, he developed the Harris algorithm , with which the exact information content of a character in a message can be calculated. The essay From Morpheme to Utterance (1946) shows that purely statistical studies can lead to a high degree of correct morphological segmentation of words. His book Methods in Structural Linguistics (1951) demonstrates how far one can get with the classical distributional analysis of language; according to Bloomfields Language (1933) it is one of the high points of American structuralism.

Since 1962 he was a member of the American Philosophical Society . In 1965 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , in 1973 to the National Academy of Sciences . Since 1985 he has been a corresponding member of the British Academy . His most prominent student was undoubtedly Noam Chomsky .

Fonts

  • A Grammar of the Phoenician Language , Dissertation, American Oriental Series , No. 8 , 1936
  • Development of the Canaanite Dialects: An Investigation in Linguistic History . American Oriental Series, 16 , 1939
  • From Morpheme to Utterance . Language 22: 3.161-183, 1946
  • Methods in Structural Linguistics , 1951
  • String Analysis of Sentence Structure , 1962
  • Mathematical Structures of Language , 1968
  • Papers in Structural and Transformational Linguistics , 1970
  • Notes du Cours de Syntax , 1976
  • Papers on Syntax , 1981
  • A Grammar of English on Mathematical Principles , 1982
  • Language and Information , 1988 ( ISBN 0-231-06662-7 )
  • The Form of Information in Science: Analysis of an immunology sublanguage , 1989 ( ISBN 90-277-2516-0 )
  • A Theory of Language and Information: A Mathematical Approach , 1991 ( ISBN 0-19-824224-7 )
  • The Transformation of Capitalist Society , 1997 ( ISBN 0-8476-8412-1 )
  • The background of transformational and metalanguage analysis. Introduction to The Legacy of Zellig Harris: Language and Information into the 21st Century: Vol. 1: Philosophy of science, syntax, and semantics , John Benjamin Publishing Company (CILT 228) 2002

literature

  • Hans Arens : Linguistics. The course of their development from antiquity to the present. Second, revised and greatly expanded edition. Karl Alber, Freiburg / Munich 1969, pages 612-623; passim. (As paperback: Fischer Athenäum Taschenbücher, Frankfurt / Main 1974, Volume I: ISBN 3-8072-2077-1 ; Volume II: ISBN 3-8072-2078-X .)
  • Senta Trömel-Plötz (Ed.): Transformational Analysis. The transformation theory of Zellig Harris and its development = Transformational analysis . Linguistic research, volume 8. Athenäum-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1972, 511 (XIII) S., ISBN 3-7610-9232-6 or ISBN 3-7610-4808-4
  • Harris, Zellig Sabbetai , in: Encyclopaedia Judaica , 1971, Volume 7, Sp. 1348

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hagen Langer: An automatic morph segmentation method for German word forms . Diss. Phil., Göttingen 1991, page 24ff .: The segmentation method by Zellig Harris .
  2. ^ Gerhard Helbig : History of modern linguistics. Under the special aspect of grammar theory . Encyclopedia, Leipzig / Hueber, Munich 1971, page 80ff: The distributionism of Harris ; passim.
  3. ^ Member History: Zellig S. Harris. American Philosophical Society, accessed September 22, 2018 .
  4. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed June 7, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Harris, Zellig S.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harris, Zellig Sabbetai (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American linguist and information theorist
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Balta , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 1992
Place of death New York City , USA