Editing Nicolas Ruwet

{{short description|French linguist and musical analyst (1932–2001)}}
{{infobox academic
| name          = Nicolas Ruwet
| image         = 
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1932|12|31|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Blegny|Saive]], Belgium
| death_date    = {{death date and age|2001|11|15|1932|12|31|df=yes}}
| death_place   = [[12th arrondissement of Paris]], Paris, France
| alma_mater    = {{plainlist|
* [[University of Liège]]
* [[École pratique des hautes études]]
* [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
}}
| workplaces    = {{plainlist|
* [[Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis]]
}}
| discipline    = {{hlist|[[Linguistics]]|[[Literary criticism]]|[[Musical analysis]] ([[Music semiology]])}}
}}

'''Nicolas Ruwet''' (31 December 1932 – 15 November 2001) was a French [[linguistics|linguist]], [[literary criticism|literary critic]] and [[musical analysis|musical analyst]] or Belgian birth.<ref name="Grove">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Ruwet, Nicolas |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.24188 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000024188 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref> He was involved with the development of [[generative grammar]],<ref name="Linguist">"[https://linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-2879/ All: Obituary: Nicolas Ruwet]" (Thu. Nov. 15 2001), ''LINGUIST List 12.2879''.</ref> and made important early contributions to [[music semiology]].

==Life and career==
Ruwet was born in [[Blegny|Saive]], [[Belgium]] on 31 December 1932.<ref name="Grove"/> In his youth he studied [[music]]: discovering the then little-known music of [[Arnold Schoenberg]] and seeking a career as a composer.{{sfn|Aroui|Zribi-Hertz|2002|p=109}} He initially studied Romance [[philology]] at the [[University of Liège]].<ref name="Grove"/> As he turned towards linguistics, he studied from 1959 onwards with [[Émile Benveniste]], [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]], and [[André Martinet]] in Paris.{{sfn|Aroui|Zribi-Hertz|2002|p=109}} Later, he studied with [[Noam Chomsky]] and [[Roman Jakobson]], both influences, at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]].<ref name="Linguist"/>

Ruwet is best known for his work as a linguist and critic, but he was also a significant figure in musical analysis. He attempted to make his analyses completely objective by not making any ''[[A priori and a posteriori|a priori]]'' assumptions about how the music worked, instead breaking the piece down into small parts and seeing how those parts related to each other, thus discovering the [[syntax]] of the piece without reference to any external sources or norms. His work in this field constitutes a kind of musical [[semiology]] and his analytical methods were later named [[paradigmatic analysis]].<ref name="Linguist"/>{{sfn|Aroui|Zribi-Hertz|2002|pp=109–110}}

''[[Grove Music Online]]'' notes that "Though not primarily a musicologist, he has been a fundamental thinker in the field of the [[Semiotics of music]]."<ref name="Grove"/> Some of his [[musical analyses]] were published along with other works in ''{{ill|Langage, musique, poésie|fr}}'' [''Language, Music, Poetry''] (1972).<ref name="Grove"/> Among his students was the musicologist [[Jean-Jacques Nattiez]], himself a seminal music semiotician.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Dunsby |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Dunsby |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Nattiez, Jean-Jacques |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.19619 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000019619 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref>

Ruwet died at the age 68 on November 14, 2001.{{sfn|Aroui|Zribi-Hertz|2002|p=109}}

==Selected publications==
* {{cite book |last=Ruwet |first=Nicolas |year=1967 |title=Introduction à la Grammaire Générative |trans-title=An Introduction to Generative Grammar |language=French |publisher=[[Plon (publisher)|Plon]] |location=Paris |isbn= |ref=no }}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lyons |first=John |date=1969 |title=Nicolas Ruwet, Introduction à La Grammaire Générative. (Recherches En Sciences Humaines, 22.) Paris:Plon, 1967. Pp. 448 |journal=Journal of Linguistics |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=189–190 |doi=10.1017/S002222670000219X }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Voisin |first=Wanda |date=1969 |title=N. Ruwet, Introduction à la grammaire générative |journal=Langue française |volume=1 |pages=108–110 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/lfr_0023-8368_1969_num_1_1_5411 |language=French }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Arrivé |first=Michel |author-link=Michel Arrivé |date=1969 |title=Nicolas Ruwet: Introduction à la grammaire générative, Paris, Plon, 1967. 448 p. |language=French |journal=Revue Romane |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages= |url=https://tidsskrift.dk/revue_romane/article/view/28890/25393 }}</ref>
* {{cite book |last=Ruwet |first=Nicolas |translator-last=Norval S.H. |translator-first=Smith |year=1973 |title=An Introduction to Generative Grammar |series=North-Holland Linguistic Series |publisher={{ill|North Holland|fr}} |location=Amsterdam |isbn=978-0-7204-6187-9 |ref=no |url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontoge0000ruwe |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite book |last=Ruwet |first=Nicolas |year=1972 |title=[[:Fr:Langage, musique, poésie|Langage, musique, poésie]] |language=French |publisher=[[Éditions du Seuil]] |location=Paris |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite book |last=Ruwet |first=Nicolas |translator-last=Goldsmith |translator-first=John |year=1991 |title=Syntax and Human Experience |series=Studies in Contemporary Linguistics |publisher=[[The University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-73221-3 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=bpaA30UGCowC}} |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{cite journal |last1=Aroui |first1=Jean-Louis |last2=Zribi-Hertz |first2=Anne |date=2002 |title=In Memoriam: Nicolas Ruwet 1933-2001 |language=French |journal=Le français moderne |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=109–111 |url=https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.umr7023.cnrs.fr%2Fsites%2Fsfl%2FIMG%2Fpdf%2F2002c_In_Memoriam_Nicolas_Ruwet_TAP.pdf%2Findex.html#federation=archive.wikiwix.com&tab=url }}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last=Dominicy |first=Marc |date=2003 |title=Nicolas Ruwet (1933-2001) |journal=Travaux de linguistique |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=133-143 }}
* {{cite book |last=Nattiez |first=Jean-Jacques |author-link=Jean-Jacques Nattiez |editor-last1=Tasmowski |editor-first1=Liliane |editor-last2=Zribi-Hertz |editor-first2=Anne |year=1992 |title=De la musique à la linguistique: Hommages à Nicolas Ruwet |language=French |chapter=Nicolas Ruwet musicologue |pages=24–38 |publisher=Communication & Cognition |location=Ghent |isbn=978-90-70963-43-9 |oclc=29177212 }}

==External links==
* "[http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/goldsmith/nicolas_ruwet.htm Nicolas Ruwet (1932-2001)]", ''UChicago.edu''. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20020109034046/http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/goldsmith/nicolas_ruwet.htm Archived])
* [https://philpapers.org/s/Nicolas%20Ruwet Articles] by Nicolas Ruwet on [[PhilPapers]]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruwet, Nicolas}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:2001 deaths]]
[[Category:Belgian musicologists]]
[[Category:20th-century musicologists]]
[[Category:Boulez scholars]]
[[Category:Stockhausen scholars]]
[[Category:Webern scholars]]