Editing Otto Jespersen

{{Short description|Danish linguist (1860–1943)}}
{{For|the Norwegian comedian|Otto Jespersen (comedian)}}
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'''Jens Otto Harry Jespersen''' ({{IPA|da|ˈʌtsʰo ˈjespɐsn̩|lang}}; 16 July 1860 – 30 April 1943) was a Danish [[linguist]] who specialized in the [[grammar]] of the [[English language]]. [[Steven Mithen]] describes him as "one of the greatest language scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."<ref>{{cite book |last=Mithen |first=Steven |authorlink=Steven Mithen |year=2005 |title=The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body |publisher=Orion |location=London |isbn=978-1-7802-2258-5 |page=15}}</ref>

==Early life==
Otto Jespersen was born in [[Randers]] in [[Jutland]], to Jens Bloch Jespersen (1813–70) and Sophie Caroline Bentzien (1833–74).<ref name="leksikon">{{Cite website| last1=Sørensen | first1=Knud | last2=Haislund | first2=Niels | date=1 August 2014 | title=Otto Jespersen | website=Dansk Biografisk Leksikon | access-date=12 May 2025 | url=https://biografiskleksikon.lex.dk/Otto_Jespersen | language=da}}</ref> He was one of nine children.{{Sfnp|Kabell|2000|p=35}} As a boy, he was inspired by works of the Danish philologist [[Rasmus Christian Rask|Rasmus Rask]] and {{Ill|Niels Matthias Petersen|da||de||fr||sv}} biography of Rask,{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=119}} and with the help of Rask's grammars taught himself some Icelandic, Italian, and Spanish.{{sfnp|Haislund|1966}}

==Academic life and work==
Jespersen entered the [[University of Copenhagen]] in 1877 when he was 17, initially studying law but not forgetting his language studies.<ref name="warwick">{{Cite web|first=Richard C. | last=Smith | url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collect/elt_archive/halloffame/jespersen/life|title = Otto Jespersen's life and career | website=Applied Linguistics | publisher=University of Warwick | year=2007}}</ref> in his first year at university, he attended a lecture course by {{ill|Sophus Heegaard|da||sv|}} on the history of [[Evolutionism]] since the Greeks; this introduced him to the ideas of [[Herbert Spencer]], and later in life he looked back on the course warmly.{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|p=13}} Jespersen taught languages in a lower secondary school,{{Sfnp|Kabell|2000|p=30}} and from 1880 to 1887 was a stenographer for the [[Rigsdagen|Rigsdag]] (Danish parliament). The income from these allowed him in 1881 to shift his focus completely to languages.<ref name="leksikon" /> Following the introduction of a new degree, ''Skoleembedseksamen'', Jespersen switched to this, choosing [[French language|French]] as the major subject and English as the second minor subject, the first compulsorily being [[Latin]] (a language that he hated from then on{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989a|p=70}}). He was one of a large number of students who appealed for Latin to be made voluntary, but the appeal was unsuccessful.{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|pp=15–16}} Jespersen studied under [[Karl Verner]], [[Hermann Möller]] and particularly [[Vilhelm Thomsen]] among linguists; and more broadly, under [[Harald Høffding]]: it was thanks to Høffding that Jespersen was further exposed to the writings and ideas of [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]], [[John Stuart Mill|Mill]] and [[Herbert Spencer|Spencer]], and to introspective psychology.{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|pp=119–120}}

In 1887 he passed ''Skoleembedseksamen''. For French, he chose to be examined on [[Denis Diderot|Diderot]], reflecting a lasting enthusiasm for the ideals of the [[French Revolution]] and the [[Age of Enlightenment]].  Throughout his life Jespersen remained faithful to the ideals and methods of his early teachers. Positivist and evolutionary attitudes, physiological and psychological methods in their classical form, and finally, liberal humanism were essential to his character.{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|pp=119–120}}

Jespersen's views on language owed less to theoretical considerations than to a practical and thus largely functional conception of language; as a language theorist, Jespersen could remain tethered to reality thanks to the common sense fundamental to his character. Even when making such bold proposals as that of the "progress" of a language, he could avoid extremes.{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=121}}

In 1887–1888, he traveled to England, Germany and France, meeting linguists like [[Henry Sweet]] and [[Paul Passy]] and attending lectures at institutions such as [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}} Following a tip from his mentor [[Vilhelm Thomsen]] that not many years would pass before there would be a vacancy for a specialist in English, he returned to Copenhagen in August 1888 and began work on his doctoral dissertation on the English [[Grammatical case|case]] system, which he defended in 1891. His doctorate entitled Jespersen to teach in the university without pay as a ''Privatdocent''; he took this opportunity to teach classes on [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]] and [[Old English]], thereby adding to his qualifications for the post; he also wrote a book on Chaucer.{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|pp=16–17}} 

On the resignation of [[George Stephens (philologist)|George Stephens]] as ''Docent'', his newly vacant post was upgraded to that of Professorship of English language and literature. Jespersen was one of four applicants; the others were {{Ill|Adolf Hansen|da|Adolf Hansen (litteraturhistoriker)}} and [[Jón Stefánsson (academic)|Jón Stefánsson]] (both rather lacklustre), and [[William Craigie]] (then very young).{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|pp=17–18}} This was "a no-holds-barred contest", during which Jón Stefánsson even published a book{{Efn|1={{Cite book | author=Jón Stefánsson | title=Dr. O. Jespersen på Krigsstien | trans-title=Dr. O. Jespersen on the warpath | location=Copenhagen | publisher=Gad | year=1893 | oclc=463247253 | language=da}}}} charging Jespersen with plagiarizing [[Georg von der Gabelentz]]. (Gabelentz himself denied this.){{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|loc=p.&nbsp;424 n.&nbsp;36}} Up to date in English philology, familiar with English literature, and "[speaking] English perfectly", Jespersen was chosen.{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|pp=17–18}} 

Jespersen was a professor of English at the University of Copenhagen from 1893 to his retirement in 1925. This was not such a comfortable position: in 1911 he published an article in the newspaper ''[[Politiken]]''{{Efn|1={{Cite newspaper | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | title=Videnskabens kår | trans-title=The state of science | newspaper=Politiken | date=13 May 1911 | language=da}}}} describing poor conditions for academic work (serious underfunding, and the lack of a compulsory retirement age for professors), and also how he had got his wife to promise to shoot him if he failed to retire at 65.{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|pp=19–20}} He remained something of a radical, in a magazine article published in 1914{{Efn|1={{Cite magazine | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | title=Universitetsønsker | trans-title=University aspirations | magazine=[[Tilskueren]] | year=1914 | pages=124–133 | language=da}}}} he made further recommendations: that Denmark should have more than one university (its second would only arrive in 1928), that a Faculty of Divinity did not belong in a modern university, that there should be financial incentives for students to proceed to postgraduate work, and more. However, although Jespersen succeeded in having Latin removed as a compulsory minor, it can be inferred{{Efn|1="[I]t seems easy to see Jespersen's hand" in the new status of Chaucer; "the Jespersen who created three sacred cows (Chaucer, Spenser and Milton) to join Shakespeare".{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|p=23}}}} that he backed the compulsory inclusion of [[William Chaucer|Chaucer]], [[Edmund Spenser|Spenser]] and [[John Milton|Milton]] in the English course.{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|pp=22–23}}

Jespersen was Dean of the Faculty of Arts from November 1904 to November 1906; and [[Rector_(academia)#Denmark|Rector]] (vice-chancellor, or president) of the university from November 1920 to November 1921. Among his engagements while Rector was an address at the inauguration in March 1921 of the Institute of Theoretical Physics (later renamed [[Niels Bohr Institute]]). Another was a speech{{Efn|1=Reprinted in {{Cite book | chapter= | trans-chapter= | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | title=Tanker og studier | trans-title=Thoughts and studies |  location=Copenhagen | publisher=Gyldendalske Boghandel | year=1932 | pages=18–26 | oclc=1508095448 | language=da}}}} welcoming new students in September 1921 "he exhorts [them] to absorb the scholarly and scientific tradition (to the extent of being critical of their professors!), the only genuine hallmark of academics".{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|pp=21–22}} 

Jespersen's early work focused primarily on language teaching reform and on phonetics, but he is better known for his later work on syntax and on language development.

===Language teaching===
At the end of the 19th century the teaching in Denmark of contemporaneous foreign languages was ossified, and very similar to that of long-dead classical languages. This was despite the belief of {{Ill|Niels Matthias Petersen|lt=N.&nbsp;M. Petersen|da||de||fr||sv}}, expressed decades earlier, that pupils should be encouraged to acquire a second language as they had acquired their first, and indeed despite the writings of [[Jan Amos Comenius]] in the 17th century.{{Sfnp|Sørensen|1989|p=34}}

In 1886, Jespersen, {{Ill|August Western|no}} and [[Johan August Lundell]] cofounded a Scandinavian group for a revitalization of language teaching, naming the group "Quousque Tandem" after [[Wilhelm Viëtor]]'s pseudonym as author of the 1882 pamphlet ''Der Sprachunterricht muss umkehren!'' ("Language teaching must start afresh!").{{Efn|1=The second edition (1886) – whose title page incidentally identifies "Quousque Tandem" as "Wilhelm Vietor" (without [[Diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis]]) – is [https://archive.org/details/dersprachunterr00vigoog/page/n5/mode/2up here] at the Internet Archive.}}{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|pp=121–122}}  The group opposed the use of [[Grammar–translation method|theoretical grammar and translation exercises]], advocating in its place the teaching of a language in its spoken and living form by the [[Direct method (education)|"direct" method]], informed by phonetics:{{Sfnp|Olsen|1947|p=158}}

<blockquote>The pupils should begin by recognizing words and short sentences by ear, and repeating them, and only then should they learn to read them. A correct pronunciation should be secured with the help of phonetic transcription.</blockquote>

As a campaigner, he was an extremist: [[Louis Hjelmslev|Hjelmslev]] writes that this was an area where Jespersen's normal moderation and common sense were counterbalanced by a revolutionary fervour, and that he was a "[[Jacobins|Jacobin]]" among linguists.{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|pp=121–122}}

Jespersen's first book (1884) was a Danish translation, ''Praktisk tilegnelse af fremmede sprog'' ("Practical acquisition of foreign languages"), of ''Die praktische Spracherlernung'',{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|p=15}} by Felix Franke. Both Franke (also born in 1860) and Jespersen first assumed that the other was much older than himself, but from its start in 1884 their correspondence quickly became a lively discussion (about two hundred letters and postcards survive) of such matters as second language education and phonetic scripts; it was cut short in 1886 when Franke succumbed to tuberculosis.{{Sfnp|Kabell|2000}}{{Efn|1=For a short biography of Franke, see Frank-Rutger Hausmann, "[https://gams.uni-graz.at/o:hsa.person.1512 Felix Franke]" (2022), {{hdl|11471/518.10.2.1512}}; in Bernhard Hurch, ed., ''Hugo Schuchardt Archiv'', [[University of Graz]].}}

In an article published in 1886{{Efn|1={{Cite magazine | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | title=Den nye sprogundervisnings program | trans-title=The new language teaching programme | magazine=Vor ungdom | year=1886 | pages=353–381 | language=da}}}} (and elaborated in his 1901 book ''Sprogundervisning'', translated as ''How to teach a foreign language'', 1904), Jespersen argued for the following principles in language teaching:
# Teaching should be based on spoken rather than written language. To this end, at early stages of language teaching, only a phonetic script should be used, and this script should be clear and precise.
# Material for reading should not consist of unrelated sentences. It should instead constitute coherent texts, preferably designed so that the meanings of unfamiliar words can be inferred from their contexts.
# At early stages the teaching of grammar should be minimized, and the pupils encouraged to infer grammatical patterns for themselves. Grammar may be examined and practised later, but time should not be spent on grammatical curios, and form and function should not be separated.
# Exercises in translating the second language into the first should not be emphasized; exercises in translating the first into the second are of very little utility.{{Sfnp|Sørensen|1989|pp=35–38}}

Jespersen followed his 1884 translation of Franke with ''Kortfattet engelsk grammatik for tale- og skriftsproget'' (1885), ''Fransk læsebog efter lydskriftsmetoden'' (1889), and (with {{Ill|Christian Sarauw|da|Christian Sarauw (sprogforsker)|sv|Christian Sarauw (språkforskare)}}) ''Engelsk begynderbog'' (1895): books which, together with those written by others that similarly used the "[[Direct method (education)|direct method]]", soon took over from the "[[Grammar–translation method|grammar–translation]]" material against which Jespersen and Quousque Tandem had rebelled:{{Sfnp|Sørensen|1989|p=38}}

For some years Denmark saw a heated contest between proponents of the grammar–translation method and those of the direct method, but the latter won, as recognized by the Secondary Schools Act of 1903.{{Sfnp|Olsen|1947|p=159}}

===Phonetics===
Jespersen's interest in phonetics was prompted by [[Henry Sweet]]'s ''Handbook of Phonetics'' (1877), and the lectures of [[Vilhelm Thomsen]].{{Sfnp|Rischel|1989|p=46}} In the 1880s, inspired by [[Alexander Melville Bell|Melville Bell]] and other British phoneticians, he developed what he first called an "analphabetic" system{{Efn|1=Published in ''The Articulations of Speech Sounds Represented by Means of Analphabetic Symbols''}} – which, "to avoid ridicule", he later termed an "antalphabetic" system – that used a series of three variables for any [[Phone (phonetics)|phone]]: lowercase Roman for the passive [[Articulatory phonetics#Articulators|articulator]], lowercase Greek for the active articulator, and numerals and more for "the degree and shape of the aperture at a place of constriction". [[Jørgen Rischel]] points out that a given "anatomical feature" can be labelled according to its use: thus rather than simply "uvular", the role of the [[uvula]] can be described as "a passive articulator in [[uvular consonant]]s but an active articulator in [[Nasalization|nasalized]] sounds".{{Sfnp|Rischel|1989|pp=48–49}}

In June 1886, he became a member of the [[International Phonetic Association]] (IPA), then called the Phonetic Teachers' Association. The idea of creating a phonetic alphabet that could be used by every language was first put forward by Jespersen in a letter he sent to [[Paul Passy]].<ref name="principles">{{Cite journal|title = The Principles of the International Phonetic Association: 1949| journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association | orig-date=1949 | year=2010 | volume=40 | issue=3 | pages=299–358 | jstor=44526579}} In a supplement on the cover, "A short history of the Association Phonétique Internationale".</ref> Jespersen's transcription system for English, used in {{Ill|John Brynildsen|no}}'s ''Engelsk–Dansk–Norsk Ordbog'' = ''A Dictionary of the English and Dano-Norwegian Languages'' (1902–1907), is very close to that of [[Daniel Jones (phonetician)|Daniel Jones]], which it preceded by some years.{{sfnp|Basbøll|2021|pp=539–540}} Language-specific systems were not unusual at the time ([[Johan Storm]] devised [[Norvegia transcription|Norvegia]] for [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] in 1884);{{Sfnp|Rischel|1989|p=45}} and Jespersen devised a system, named [[Dania transcription|Dania]], for the phonetic transcription of Danish (1890), which has remained in use for philological, dialectological and lexicographic work in Danish.{{sfnp|Basbøll|2021|p=538}} Jespersen was sceptical of a single phonetic transcription system for universal application, and did not use the IPA's [[International Phonetic Alphabet]].{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=125}}

With continued encouragement by Thomsen and a new friendship with [[Paul Passy]], whom he met in Paris, Jespersen was  well informed on phonetics. His own major work on this was ''Fonetik'', published in 1897–1899. In it, Jespersen bases his descriptions on his observations of his own production of sounds in a variety of languages, where this production satisfies native speakers. Jespersen was keen to supplant metaphorical and impressionistic terms with those that described the vocal tract, and had considerable success. [[Jørgen Rischel]] calls ''Fonetik'' "a landmark in Danish phonetics because of its terminology", much of which has lasted.{{Sfnp|Rischel|1989|pp=45–46}} Stripped of content specific to Danish, but updated, it was published in German translation in 1904. 

The Danish-specific material within ''Fonetik'' was republished in 1906 within the booklet ''Modersmålets fonetik'' ("Phonetics of the mother tongue"). This treated not only the sounds of Danish but also its [[Prosody (linguistics)|prosody]], an area in which Jespersen was a pioneer. Repeatedly reprinted, the booklet was long used as a standard textbook.{{Sfnp|Rischel|1989|p=51}}

Two books, ''Phonetische Grundfragen'' ("Phonetics essentials") and ''Lehrbuch der Phonetik'' ("Textbook of phonetics"), presented portions of ''Fonetik'' to readers of German in 1904. Jespersen hoped for an English translation, and plans were made for a translation by [[Hans Jørgen Uldall]], and later for a revision by Uldall, no English translation ever appeared.{{Sfnp|Rischel|1989|p=56}} 

Rischel writes that: "It is Jespersen's amazing breadth in [his studies of phonetics], paired with his never failing linguistic intuition as a safeguard against errors or downright nonsense, which impresses the reader today."{{Sfnp|Rischel|1989|p=56}} In [[Eli Fischer-Jørgensen]]'s estimate (1979), Jespersen was not a great innovator, but was unusually adept at the pronunciation and description of articulatory phonetics, and also aware of the importance of contrast.{{sfnp|Basbøll|2021|pp=540–541}}

Early [[Dialectology|dialectological]] and other fieldwork on East Slesvig and [[Jutlandic|North Jutland]] dialects, [[Faroese language|Faroese]], and [[West Greenlandic]] work was indebted to Jespersen's methodology (although for the last, [[William Thalbitzer]], the researcher, "did not live up to Jespersen's standards at all").{{Sfnp|Rischel|1989|pp=52–53}}

Although not a phonologist himself, Jespersen was the first to propose a conceptual distinction between ''phonetics'' and ''phonology'' that is commonly observed today.{{Efn|"It would, perhaps, be advisable to restrict the word 'phonetics' to universal or general phonetics and to use the word ''phonology'' of the phenomena peculiar to a particular language (e.g. 'English Phonology').&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;."<ref>{{Cite book | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | title=The Philosophy of Grammar | location=London | publisher=George Allen & Unwin | year=1924 | oclc=308037 | url=https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.9325/page/n5/mode/2up| via=Internet Archive | page=35}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | title=Phonology in the Twentieth Century | edition=2nd | first=Stephen R. | last=Anderson | authorlink=Stephen R. Anderson | location=Berlin | publisher=Language Science Press | year=2021 | page=3 | isbn=978-3-96110-327-0 | doi=10.5281/zenodo.5509618 | url=https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/327}} Also {{ISBN|978-3-98554-023-5}}.</ref> However, Jespersen's suggestion continues: "but this question of terminology is not very important".}}

''[[Stød]]'', "a particular kind of laryngealisation (creaky voice) characterizing some Danish syllables" had been studied since [[Jens Høysgaard]] in the mid-18th century, but Jespersen's synchronic study of ''stød'' and of its morphology and also his study of the relationship between the Danish ''stød'' and "the Norwegian and Swedish [[Pitch-accent language#Norwegian and Swedish|tonal ('musical') accents]]" were major advances from the work done by [[Rasmus Rask]], [[Karl Verner]], and [[Henry Sweet]].{{sfnp|Basbøll|2021|pp=545–546, 549–550}}

[[Hans Basbøll]] evaluates Jespersen as "a true pioneer in his analysis of stress" saying that:

<blockquote>he developed a whole system of types of stress and described it in detail: both syntactic principles of stress reduction (unitary stress, or unit accentuation), of compound stress, of value stress (different types of emphatic stress), and so on.{{sfnp|Basbøll|2021|p=548}}</blockquote>

Basbøll has coined the term "New Jespersen School" (''Ny-Jespersenianerne'') for "the main editors of [''Den Store Danske Udtaleordbog'' (a major pronunciation dictionary for Danish){{Efn|{{Cite book | last1=Brink | first1=Lars | first2=Jørn | last2=Lund | first3=Steffen | last3=Heger | first4=Jens Normann |last4=Jørgensen | year=1991 | title=Den store danske udtaleordbog | trans-title=The great Danish pronunciation dictionary | location=Copenhagen | publisher=Munksgaard | isbn=9788716066497 | language=da}}}}], namely, {{Ill|Lars Brink (linguist)|lt=Lars Brink|da|Lars Brink}}, [[Jørn Lund (linguist)|Jørn Lund]] and Steffen Heger, and their collaborators and pupils"; their major achievement aside from ''SDU'' has been Brink and Lund's two-volume historical phonetics work ''Dansk Rigsmål'' (1975).{{Sfnp|Rischel|1989|p=59}}{{Efn|{{Cite book | last1=Brink | first1=Lars | first2=Jørn | last2=Lund | year=1975 | title=Dansk rigsmål. Lydudviklingen siden 1840 med særligt henblik på sociolekterne i København | trans-title=Spoken standard Danish. The phonetic evolution since 1840 with particular reference to the sociolects in Copenhagen | location=Copenhagen | publisher=Gyldendal | isbn=9788701416818 | language=da}}}}{{sfnp|Basbøll|2021|p=554}}

===Concentration on English===
While still regarding himself as less of a scholar of English than a scholar of French, Jespersen published ''Kortfattet engelsk grammatik for tale- og skriftsproget'' ("A concise English grammar for the spoken and written language") in 1885. Most unusually for a grammar book, this employed phonetic script. Inge Kabell comments: "All other grammars of English published in Denmark were for many, many years to come modelled on it and all middle-aged Danes have been taught English according to the principles found in it."{{Sfnp|Kabell|2000|p=33}}

Jespersen continued to study in Paris (especially under [[Gaston Paris]]), England, Berlin (under [[Julius Zupitza]]), and Leipzig. Particularly important were his friendships with [[Paul Passy]] and [[Henry Sweet]]. Sweet's views on phonetics, grammar, and historical linguistics, and his concentration on English, had a great influence on Jespersen. Jespersen's choice of the [[Grammatical case|case]] system of English as the subject of his doctoral dissertation was probably also prompted by advice from [[Vilhelm Thomsen]] to prepare for a chair in English at the [[University of Copenhagen]] that would soon be vacant upon the retirement of [[George Stephens (philologist)|George Stephens]]. He successfully defended his dissertation in 1891. Once installed as chair, Jespersen devoted most of his energy to the study and teaching of English, but he retained his broader interests. His prolific output was of great importance for the linguistic study of all aspects of English, for linguistics in general, and to a lesser degree for Nordic philology. Jespersen was the first great linguist to hold the chair of English at the Copenhagen, while his friend {{Ill|Kristoffer Nyrop|ca||de||fr||it||ro||ru|Нюроп, Кристофер|sv}} had much the same role for the university's chair of French.{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=122}}

Jespersen continued as chair of English until he retired in 1925, following his resolve not to continue after reaching 65, in order to help make way for younger scholars.{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=123}}

===General syntax===
Jespersen advanced the concepts of ''rank'' in two papers: ''Sprogets logik'' (1913) and ''De to hovedarter af grammatiske forbindelser'' (1921); and in the latter, ''[[Nexus grammar|nexus]]'' as well.{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=125}} In this theory of ranks Jespersen removes the parts of speech from the syntax, and differentiates between primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries; e.g. in ''well honed phrase'', the primary is ''phrase'', this being defined by a secondary, ''honed'', which itself is defined by a tertiary, ''well''. The term ''nexus'' is applied to sentences, structures similar to sentences and sentences in formation, in which two concepts are expressed in one unit; e.g., ''it rained, he ran indoors''. This term is qualified by a further concept called a ''junction'' which represents one idea, expressed by means of two or more elements, whereas a nexus combines two ideas. ''Junction'' and ''nexus'' have had a mixed evaluation: Hjelmslev finds the distinction between them confused, and Jespersen's theory of them in need of revision, in contrast to his refinement in "Tid og tempus" (1914){{Efn|1="[http://publ.royalacademy.dk/books/336/1939?lang=en Tid og tempus. Fortsatte logisk-grammatiske studier]". ''Oversigt over det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger'' 1914, no.&nbsp;5–6, pp.&nbsp;367–420 – via the Royal Danish Academy of Arts and Letters.}} of Sweet's distinction between ''[[Grammatical tense|tense]]'' (Danish ''tempus'') and ''time'' (Danish ''tid'').{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|pp=125–126}}

Jespersen's work helped point the way towards our current understanding of a grammatical ''[[Head (linguistics)|head]]''.<ref>{{Cite book | first=Evelien | last=Keizer | title=The English Noun Phrase: The Nature of Linguistic Categorization | location=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-521-84961-6 | page=53}}</ref>

In Hjelmslev's opinion, ''Negation in English and Other Languages'' (1917) offers a great number of observations and considerable food for thought, but fails to constitute a general examination of negation, for which purpose it would have to be based on more solid materials, from a greater variety of languages{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=126}} (the overwhelming majority of the examples examined are from the [[Indo-European languages]] of west Europe). Jespersen coined the terms ''[[paratactic negation]]''{{Sfnp|Van der Wouden|1997|p=196}} and ''resumptive negation'' (negation with an element added to the end of the sentence to strengthen the already negative meaning of the sentence);{{Sfnp|Van der Wouden|1997|p=248}} he also advanced understanding of ''[[negative concord]]''.<ref>{{Cite book | first=Anastasia | last=Giannakidou | author-link=Anastasia Giannakidou | chapter=''N''-words and negative concord | volume=3 | page=328 | editor-first1=Martin | editor-last1=Everaert | editor-first2=Henk | editor-last2=van Riemsdijk | editor-link2=Henk van Riemsdijk | title=The Blackwell Companion to Syntax | location=Malden, Massachusetts | publisher=Blackwell | year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4051-1485-1}}</ref>

In ''The Philosophy of Grammar'' (1924) Jespersen challenges the accepted views of common concepts in [[grammar]] and proposes corrections to the basic definitions of [[grammatical case|case]], [[pronoun]], [[object (grammar)|object]], [[voice (grammar)|voice]] etc., and further develops his notions of ''Rank'' and ''Nexus''. In the 21st century this book is still used as one of the basic texts in modern [[structural linguistics]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

With ''The Philosophy of Grammar'' particularly in mind, [[Noam Chomsky]] said in 1975: "I think it is fair to say that the work of recent years tends generally to support the basic ideas that Jespersen outlined 50 years ago, and extends and advances the program that he outlined."<ref>{{Cite book | editor-first=Noam | editor-last=Chomsky | first=Noam | last=Chomsky | author-link=Noam Chomsky | chapter=Questions of form and interpretation | title=Essays on Form and Interpretation | location=New York | publisher=North-Holland | year=1977 | isbn=0-7204-8615-7 | orig-date=1975}} Also {{ISBN|0-444-00229-4}}.</ref>

Late in his life Jespersen published ''Analytic Syntax'' (1937), in which he presents his views on syntactic structure using an idiosyncratic shorthand notation.

===Evolution and progress of languages===
From his doctoral dissertation of 1891 onwards, Jespersen maintained that over time language did not merely [[Evolutionary linguistics|evolve]] but ''progressed'', a notion originally inspired by [[Herbert Spencer|Spencer]]'s ideas on the progress of language.{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=127}} He wrote "That language ranks highest which goes farthest in the art of accomplishing much with little means, or, in other words, which is able to express the greatest amount of meaning with the simplest mechanism."<ref>{{Cite book | last=Jespersen | first=Otto | year=1894 | title=Progress in Language: With Special Reference to English | location=London | publisher=Sonnenschein | oclc=607098829 | url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924026448203 | via=Internet Archive | page=13}} {{Cite book | last=Jespersen | first=Otto | year=1922 | title=Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin | location=London | publisher=George Allen & Unwin | page=324}}</ref> Jespersen considered the efficiency of a language's [[phonology]], [[lexicon]] and grammar, his view of efficiency in grammar being a reaction to contrasting estimates of "[[Synthetic language|synthetic]]" and "[[Analytic language|analytic]]" inflectional languages. held by the brothers [[August Wilhelm Schlegel]] and [[Friedrich Schlegel]], and [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]].{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|pp=419–420}} 

[[August Schleicher]] was a conspicuous proponent of the idea that older languages such as [[Latin]] had attained a synthetic optimum, and languages that derived from these tended to degrade via the analytic towards an "[[Isolating language|isolating]]" extreme, the degree of degradation of a language increasing with "the richness and eventfulness of its speakers' history".{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|p=421}} Jespersen proposed the reverse, criticizing the needless [[Language complexity|complexities]] of synthetic grammar, and ascribing Schleicher's evaluations to "a grammar-school admiration, a Renaissance love of [Latin and Ancient Greek] and their literatures".<ref>''Progress in Language'', pp. 9–10; quoted in {{Sfnlink|McElvenny|2017|p=421}}.</ref>

Whereas Schleicher conceived language as a biological phenomenon, and thus subject to processes such as maturation, ageing and death, linguists of the mid 19th century such as [[Georg Curtius]], [[Johan Nikolai Madvig]] and [[William Dwight Whitney]] emphasized language as a human-developed tool for communication. By the end of the century this became the received conception of language.{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|p=422}} 

Jespersen thought of the uses of language as needing a balance between two factors: the ''ease'' of the speaker's expression of ideas, and the ''distinctness'' of that expression (and thus the ease of comprehension for the listener).<ref>''Efficiency in Linguistic Change'', pp. 391–392; quoted in {{Sfnlink|McElvenny|2017|p=422}}.</ref> The proximate sources of the pair were [[Georg von der Gabelentz]]'s ''Bequemlichkeitstrieb'' ('drive to comfort') and ''Deutlichkeitstrieb'' ('drive to distinctness', although by ''Deutlichkeit'' Gabelentz meant something broader than Jespersen's early formulations of ''distinctness'').{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|p=423}} Although Jespersen later recognized that distinctness should include playfulness, vividness and other factors, the ability to communicate retained its primacy.{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|p=424}}

As for the mechanism of grammatical change, a major interest of Jespersen's was the diachronic loss from [[Old English]] of both [[Case (linguistics)|case]] [[inflection]]s and freedom of [[word order]]. He showed that fixed word order did not arrive to make up for the loss of case inflections: word order became fixed before rather than after this loss. Rather, the degree of [[Syncretism (linguistics)|syncretism]] in inflection had meant that inflection had lost much of its earlier helpfulness. A later change Jespersen discussed was the disappearance of the exclusively singular [[Grammatical person|second-person]] (''[[Thou|thou, thee, thy, thine]]''), which, he wrote, had merely maintained a "useless distinction" between polite and familiar terms of address or reference.{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989a|pp=65–66}}

Unlike Gabelentz, Jespersen was interested in extending the concepts of analyticity and efficiency to international auxiliary languages.{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|p=425}} Within negotiations among the [[Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language]] aimed at deciding which constructed language should receive the international backing of scholars, the greatest supporter of Jespersen's principles was the chemist [[Wilhelm Ostwald]], who had his own theory of ''Energetik'' ('energetics'), and for whom "Language was .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. a domain of culture calling out to be optimized through deliberate intervention".{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|p=427}} Thus for Jespersen, progress towards communicative efficiency is anyway inevitable,<ref>{{Cite book | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | date=1933 | chapter=Energetik der Sprache | title=Linguistica: Selected Papers in English, French and German | location=Copenhagen | publisher=Levin & Munskgaard | orig-date=1914 | pages=98–108 | oclc=459619574 | url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.16424/page/n5/mode/2up | via=Internet Archive | language=de}}</ref> but can also be assisted by [[language planning|language engineering]].{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|p=428}}

Hjelmslev criticizes the ambiguity of "efficiency" and "effort"; and adds that even if these are understood only loosely, there have been counter-examples.{{Efn|For the description of counter-examples, Hjelmslev particularly credits {{Cite book | first=Björn | last=Collinder | author-link=Björn Collinder | title=Introduktion i Språkvetenskapen | trans-title=Introduction to linguistics | location=Stockholm | publisher=Hugo Geber | year=1941 | oclc=769852250 | language=sv}}}} He concludes that, as propounded by Jespersen, the thesis is far from convincing, but is put forward vividly and has aroused considerable interest.{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=127}}

Jespersen's conception of evolution soon came to differ from Spencer's. Whereas Spencer believed that increased heterogeneity – synonymy, and the generation of new word classes, dialects and even languages – indicated progress, Jespersen found progress in simplicity and uniformity{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|p=429}} and:

Jespersen praised the "{{Thinspace}}'noiseless' machinery" of English,{{Efn|1={{Cite book | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | title=A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, Part VI: Morphology | location=Copenhagen | publisher=Ejnar Munksgaard | date=1942 | oclc=220412299 | page=85 | url=https://archive.org/details/modernenglishgra0000otto_u2o2/page/84/mode/2up | via=Internet Archive}} (McElvenny cites the 1954 edition; its pagination is the same.) Jespersen writes this in the context of "the formal identity of a great many words belonging to different word-classes" (largely thanks to [[Conversion (word formation)|conversion]]).}} the modern European language furthest down the analytic path, and the language most despised by Schleicher precisely for what he regarded as this analytic degeneracy.{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|p=429}}

In a review of ''Efficiency in Linguistic Change'', [[Bernard Bloch (linguist)|Bernard Bloch]] was forthright in saying that while linguists, like anyone else, were entitled to their private opinions on the relative merits of languages, judging the utility or attractiveness of a language was not part of their job.{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|p=430}} But although Bloch was an American structuralist, largely following [[Leonard Bloomfield]], his reaction was much more extreme than that of Bloomfield, who thought that tackling questions such as relative efficiency was not improper, but instead better postponed until the factors involved were better understood.{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|pp=430–431}}

A very different kind of opposition to Jespersen's conception came from [[Charles Bally]], whose [[stylistics]] concerns led him to concentrate on the affective dimension of language, for which processes such as polysemy and [[Clipping (morphology)|clipping]] are important, and thus to reject efficiency as an ideal.{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|pp=433–434}} Bally's objections to received opinions on language evolution extended beyond this: for example, he claimed that the change from "synthetic" to "analytic" was at times reversed{{Sfnp|McElvenny|2017|p=438}} (as [[Hermann Möller]] had pointed out to Jespersen as early as 1891{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989a|p=71}}).

[[Hans Frede Nielsen]] has criticized Jespersen's lack of consistency in, for example, approving the development of new, [[Periphrasis|periphrastic]] (and, thanks to ''&nbh;ing'', inflectional) tenses for allowing new distinctions and nuances that enriched English, while also approving the loss in English of the [[subjunctive]] and thus the distinctions and nuances that it had enabled.{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989a|pp=73–74}}

As for the beginnings of language:

<blockquote>[[Wilhelm von Humboldt|Humboldt]] held the view .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. that the origin of language lies in the natural urge to produce art.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. [The idea, which] originated most probably with [[Giambattista Vico|Vico]] .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. lived on till the beginning of the 20th century. Jespersen .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. emphatically denies, against all evidence, the romanticist background of this theory, [yet] still defends the thesis that language originated in song, in love play and otherwise.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Nowadays [this view] is entirely forgotten.{{Efn|1=Seuren points to Jespersen's ''Progress in Language: With Special Reference to English'' (1894); and to his ''Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin'' (1922), pp.&nbsp;431–437.}}<ref>{{Cite book | first=Pieter A. M. | last=Seuren | author-link=Pieter Seuren | title=Western Linguistics: An Historical Introduction | location=Malden, Massachusetts | publisher=Blackwell | page=77 | isbn=978-0-631-20891-4}}</ref></blockquote>

Richard C. Smith considers ''Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin'' to be Jespersen's "masterpiece".<ref name="warwick"/>

Jespersen advanced the study of the [[Great Vowel Shift]], and was the first to present it in diagram form; he also coined its name.{{Efn|1=More precisely, Jespersen writes "the great vowel-shift": with a hyphen, and not capitalized. {{Cite book | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | title=A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. Part I: Sounds and Spellings | location=London | publisher=George Allen & Unwin | url= | via= | year=1961 | orig-date=1909 | pages=231–47}}}}<ref>{{Cite journal | title=The rise and fall of the Great Vowel Shift? The changing ideological intersections of philology, historical linguistics, and literary history | first=Matthew | last=Giancarlo | journal=Representations | volume=76 | number=1 | date=Fall 2001 | jstor=10.1525/rep.2001.76.1.27 | page=38}}</ref>

===Child language===
As Jespersen believed that linguistics was a biological science and that in evolution [[Recapitulation theory|ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny]], his interest in historical linguistics led him both to examine child language and to propound [[interlinguistics]], the encouragement of linguistic progress.{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=127}}

Jespersen's writings on child language appear in ''Nutidssprog hos børn og voxne'' (1916), ''Børnesprog'' (1923), ''Sproget: barnet, kvinden, slægten'' (1941); they are summarized within ''Language: Its nature, development, and origin'' (1922).{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=127}}

===International auxiliary languages===
{{Ido sidebar |expanded=History}}
Jespersen applied both his theories on grammar and his ideas of efficiency of expression into the quest for an [[international auxiliary language]]. 

<blockquote>It is true that towards the end of his life Jespersen expressed some qualms about the time and energy he had invested in &lsqb;[[Constructed language|artificial languages]], but his] interest in the matter covered practically his whole life, from his rejection of [[Volapük]] in his student days to suggested reforms in his own creation [[Novial]] a few years before his death.{{Sfnp|Larsen|1989|p=101}}</blockquote>

In 1907 [[Louis Couturat]] called a meeting of the [[Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language]] to decide on a single language for recommendation for international use.{{Sfnp|Larsen|1989|p=102}} As an Anglicist, Jespersen might have been expected to back English for this role, but he rejected such a notion on the grounds that:{{Sfnp|Larsen|1989|p=103}}

<blockquote>
* a deliberate choice of any one [national] language for such a purpose would meet with unsurmountable difficulties on account of international jealousies{{Sfnp|Jespersen|1928|pp=17–18}}
* each of them is several times more difficult than a constructed language need be{{Sfnp|Jespersen|1928|p=21}}
</blockquote>

As for constructed languages, these had either of two goals. There were languages primarily designed to encourage clarity of thought, and those primarily based on (but simplifying) existing, widely spoken languages. [[Volapük]], which had approached the former (and whose words were built on unrecognizable [[Root (linguistics)|roots]]), had suffered a recent and rapid eclipse in speaker population by [[Esperanto]], which did not. Thus the favourites for endorsement by the Delegation were Esperanto (which had regular [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] and was largely based on [[Romance language]]s), and [[Idiom Neutral]] (which had less stress on regularity and was based on what was already shared by the most prominent languages of Europe).{{Sfnp|Larsen|1989|p=104}} Of the two, Idiom Neutral was more to Jespersen's liking.{{Sfnp|Larsen|1989|pp=107–108}}

A complex and shady process (see [[Ido#History|Ido: History]]) involved the sudden nomination by somebody using the pseudonym "Ido" of a newly conceived revision of Esperanto. Despite learning of the deception made by or for the pseudonymous reviser, and despite his anger over this deception, Jespersen believed candidate languages should be judged purely on their merits, and that this revision (which came to be called [[Ido]]) was a significant improvement over Esperanto in its current state. However, [[L. L. Zamenhof|L.&nbsp;L. Zamenhof]], Esperanto's creator, was opposed to it, as was the Esperantists' [[Akademio de Esperanto|Lingva Komitato]], and it became a rival of Esperanto.{{Sfnp|Larsen|1989|pp=108–109}} Jespersen collaborated with [[Louis Couturat]] and others on ''International Language and Science'' (1910), a book advocating its adoption;{{Efn|{{Cite book | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | chapter=Linguistic principles necessary for the construction of an international auxiliary language, with an appendix on the criticism of Esperanto | pages=27–41 | editor-first1=L[ouis] | editor-last1=Couturat | editor-first2=O[tto] | editor-last2=Jespersen | editor-link3=Richard Lorenz (chemist) | editor-first3=R[ichard] | editor-last3=Lorenz | editor-link4=Wilhelm Ostwald | editor-first4=W[ilhelm] | editor-last4=Ostwald | editor-link5=Leopold Pfaundler | editor-first5=L[eopold] | editor-last5=Pfaundler | url=https://archive.org/details/internationallan00pfaurich | title=International Language and Science: Considerations on the Introduction of an International Language into Science | location=London | publisher=Constable | year=1910 | via=Internet Archive | oclc=561980523}}}}{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=127}} and became president of an Ido academy. But although a significant increase in its number of speakers would have required Ido to mobilize its speakers and evangelize, such a project did not attract Jespersen, who wanted "a language for the brain, not for the heart".{{sfnm|1a1=Jespersen|1y=1928|1p=27|2a1=Larsen|2y=1989|2p=110}}

In 1925 Jespersen met [[Alice Vanderbilt Morris|Alice Morris]], a wealthy cofounder (and lasting financial supporter) of the [[International Auxiliary Language Association]] (IALA). "[U]nlike its counterparts in the international auxiliary language movement in Europe, there was in IALA little of the fanaticism, the eccentricity, and even the mysticism that accompanied the promotion of languages such as Esperanto."{{Sfnp|Falk|1995|p=244}} Through Morris and the IALA Jespersen also met [[Edgar de Wahl]], creator of the language [[Interlingue|Occidental]] and others with whom he could discuss the possibilities for constructed languages.{{Sfnp|Larsen|1989|110}}

Jespersen's active participation in the IALA included chairing an IALA-funded  conference, the Meeting of Linguistic Research, held in Geneva in spring 1930;{{Sfnp|Falk|1995|p=250}} but perhaps more important to IALA was the prestige he brought. Before the involvement in IALA, and then formal association with it, of American scholars such as [[Edward Sapir]], Earle Babcock, [[Henry Alfred Todd|Henry A. Todd]], and John L. Gerig, and the Europeans [[William Edward Collinson|Collinson]] and Jespersen, many in academia thought international auxiliary languages pointless and a waste of time; but now "the organization and the movement could – and did – claim scholarly legitimacy for its linguistic research".{{Sfnp|Falk|1995|p=249}}

Morris viewed the issues involved in constructing a language to be mainly those of the lexicon. She and Jespersen (writing in a 1929 article, "Nature and art in language"{{Efn|text={{Cite journal | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | title=Nature and art in language | journal=[[American Speech]] | year=1929 | volume=5 | pages=89–103}}}}) were not unusual:

<blockquote>The proponents, the creators, and the analysts of artificial languages all concentrated on lexicon and derivational morphology. Syntax warranted no special attention. Being 'natural', it would take care of itself, or so it seemed to many of the enthusiasts most responsible for actually constructing auxiliary languages.{{Sfnp|Falk|1995|p=245}}</blockquote>

Jespersen believed that constructed languages, Ido included, were still more complex than needed, and still differed more than necessary from widely spoken national languages. He therefore set out to create an improved language, [[Novial]]{{Sfnp|Larsen|1989|pp=110–112}} (''Nov'' "new" + ''IAL'' "International Auxiliary Language"{{Sfnp|Falk|1995|p=244}}). His significant publications here include ''An International language'' (1928);{{Efn|text={{Sfnp|Jespersen|1928}}}} ''Novial Lexike'' (a dictionary, 1930);{{Efn|text={{Cite book | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | title=Novial Lexike: International Dictionary {{=}} Dictionnaire international {{=}} Internationales Wörterbuch | location=Heidelberg | publisher=Carl Winter | year=1930 | oclc=39992226}}}} and "A new science: Interlinguistics" (1931).{{Efn|text={{Cite journal | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | title=A new science: Interlinguistics | journal=Psyche | volume=11 | year=1931 | pages=57–67}} Also in 
{{Cite book | editor-first1=Herbert N. | editor-last1=Shenton | editor-link1=Herbert N. Shenton | editor-first2=Edward | editor-last2=Sapir | editor-link2=Edward Sapir | editor-first3=Otto | editor-last3=Jespersen | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | chapter=Interlinguistics | title=International Communication: A Symposium on the Language Problem | series=Psyche Miniatures 37 | location=London | publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner | year=1931 | oclc=2805609}}}}{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=127}} Novial got a mixed reception (the Esperantist [[Gaston Waringhien]] found it particularly unsatisfactory), but Jespersen was hobbled by the mutual incompatibility of regularity and perceived naturalness as goals. Oddly, Novial also lacked some of the features that Jespersen had praised in English, such as consonant-ending monosyllabic words, and [[Conversion (word formation)|conversion]] without a need for [[inflection]].{{Sfnp|Larsen|1989|pp=114–117}}

Larsen urges his readers:{{Sfnp|Larsen|1989|p=120}}

<blockquote>But rather than judge [projects such as Novial] by their actual or potential contribution to international communication, we are better advised .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. to see [Jespersen's] life-long preoccupation with auxiliary languages and his creation of Novial not as a heroic failure but as a revealing application of his linguistic thought.</blockquote>

===The English language===
Jespersen's specialism for the longest period was the English language. His most celebrated work, and easily his most expansive, was ''[[A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles]]'', published in six "parts" (volumes) during his lifetime, from 1909 to 1942, and a seventh, posthumous part in 1949. The first part is devoted to phonetics (much of it historical), the sixth to morphology (both derivational and inflectional). Five of the seven parts are devoted to syntax, which Jespersen particularly enjoyed.{{Efn|1="When I took up work again after a rest necessitated by over-strain during a nine months' stay in America, I wanted something pleasurable to do and thought Syntax more attractive than Morphology.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;." {{Cite book| first=Otto | last=Jespersen | location=London | publisher=George Allen & Unwin | title=A Modern English Grammar on historical principles. Part II: Syntax (first volume) | orig-date=1914 | year=1954 | page=v | url=https://archive.org/details/jespersen-1954-a-modern-english-grammar-on-historical-principles-part-ii-syntax-first-volume | via=Internet Archive}}}}

Writing in Jespersen's obituary, Helmslev calls ''A Modern English Grammar'' a "monumental work", one that "will maintain its immense value for an incalculable future thanks to the rich documentation of facts it provides".{{Efn|1="[Un] œuvre monumentale.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Ce grand ouvrage .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. conservera pour un avenir incalculable une très haute valeur par la riche documentation de faits qu'il apporte."}}{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=128}}

In his own work ''[[The Syntactic Phenomena of English]]'' (1988), [[James D. McCawley]] attributes various of his analyses, or the insights pointing towards them, to Jespersen: [[Raising (syntax)|raising]];{{Sfnp|McCawley|1988|loc=vol.&nbsp;1, pp.&nbsp;122,&nbsp;149}} "worthwhile criticism of traditional systems of [[part of speech|parts of speech]]"{{Sfnp|McCawley|1988|loc=vol.&nbsp;1, p.&nbsp;204}} and classification of what are traditionally termed "[[subordinating conjunction]]s" (as in "You must look at this ''<u>before</u> you leave''") as [[preposition]]s with sentential [[Object (grammar)|objects]];{{Sfnp|McCawley|1988|loc=vol.&nbsp;1, p.&nbsp;191}} and more specifically, classification of ''that'' in [[relative clause]]s (as in "The necktie ''<u>that</u> he bought'' was polyester") not as a [[relative pronoun]] but as a [[complementizer]].{{Sfnp|McCawley|1988|loc=vol.&nbsp;2, p.&nbsp;461}} Asked how the 20th-century Dutch grammarians of English [[Hendrik Poutsma]], [[Etsko Kruisinga]] and [[R. W. Zandvoort|R.&nbsp;W. Zandvoort]] compared with Jespersen, McCawley replied: "Of course, Jespersen is in a class by himself. He was a fantastically original, broad, and deep thinker."<ref>{{Cite journal | title=An interview with professor James D. McCawley | first=F.G.A.M. |last=Aarts | journal=Forum der Letteren | year=1977 | url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_for004197701_01/_for004197701_01_0020.php | via=DBNL | page=232}}</ref>

''Growth and Structure of the English Language'' (1905, and reprinted at numerous times thereafter) is a broad history of the English language. It won Jespersen the [[Prix Volney]].{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=129}} In 1989, [[Hans Frede Nielsen]] wrote that:

<blockquote>[It] can be read as the homage paid by an Anglophile to the English language which is praised for its business-like, virile qualities, its conciseness, logic and sobriety — to say nothing of its noble, rich, pliant and expressive character.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. No wonder that [the book] became so popular in the English-speaking world and among Anglophiles elsewhere.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Nielsen|1989a|pp=70–71}} Within this, Nielsen cites in particular ''Growth and Structure of the English Language'' (9th edition, 1938), pp.&nbsp;2–16, 234.</ref></blockquote>

He described it as "probably the most widely read introduction to the history of the English language ever written".{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989a|p=61}}

''Essentials of English Grammar'' (1933), primarily intended for university teaching, is for the most part synchronic.{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|pp=129–130}} [[W. Nelson Francis]] described it as "arguably [Jespersen's] most familiar and popular book".{{Sfnp|Francis|1989|p=97}}

Terms related to English that were introduced by Jespersen and are still widely used today include ''[[cleft sentence]]'',<ref>{{Cite book | first=Peter C. | last=Collins | title=Cleft and Pseudo-cleft Constructions in English | location=London | publisher=Routledge | year=1991 | isbn=0-415-06328-0 | page=3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | first=Marcel | last=den Dikken | chapter=Specificational copular sentences and pseudoclefts | volume=4 | page=306 | editor-first1=Martin | editor-last1=Everaert | editor-first2=Henk | editor-last2=van Riemsdijk | editor-link2=Henk van Riemsdijk | title=The Blackwell Companion to Syntax | location=Malden, Massachusetts | publisher=Blackwell | year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4051-1485-1 }}</ref> ''[[content clause]]'',{{Sfnp|Aarts|Chalker|Weiner|2014|p=96}} ''[[light verb]]'',<ref>{{Cite book | first=Tara | last=Mohanan | author-link=Tara Mohanan | chapter=Grammatical verbs (with special reference to light verbs) | volume=2 | pages=461–462 | editor-first1=Martin | editor-last1=Everaert | editor-first2=Henk | editor-last2=van Riemsdijk | editor-link2=Henk van Riemsdijk | title=The Blackwell Companion to Syntax | location=Malden, Massachusetts | publisher=Blackwell | year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4051-1485-1}}</ref> ''[[mass noun]]'',{{Sfnp|Aarts|Chalker|Weiner|2014|pp=244–245}} ''quantifier'',{{Sfnp|Francis|1989|p=79}}<!-- As of May '25, en:Wikipedia has no article on quantifiers in linguistics, as opposed to logic. --> and ''[[Yes–no question|yes-or-no question]]''.{{Sfnp|Aarts|Chalker|Weiner|2014|p=222}} Jespersen's writings have also influenced today's conceptions of ''[[existential sentence]]''.<ref>{{Cite book | first=Andrea | last=Moro | author-link=Andrea Moro | chapter=Expletive sentences and expletive ''there'' | volume=2 | pages=210–211 | editor-first1=Martin | editor-last1=Everaert | editor-first2=Henk | editor-last2=van Riemsdijk | editor-link2=Henk van Riemsdijk | title=The Blackwell Companion to Syntax | location=Malden, Massachusetts | publisher=Blackwell | year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4051-1485-1}}</ref>

Robert I. Binnick calls Jespersen "one of the greatest students of the English language .&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;, at once the last of the traditional grammarians and the first modern linguist–grammarian".<ref>{{Cite book | first=Robert I. | last=Binnick | title=Time and the Verb: A Guide to Tense and Aspect |location=New York | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1991 | isbn=0-19-506206-X | pages=53–54}}</ref>

===Sociolinguistics===
Jespersen has been cited as "a pioneer in the study of women's language [and] often quoted for his views on what he believed to be the biologically determined nature of women's usage" – although "[a] product of his own day and age".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hovdhaugen | first1=Even | author-link1=Even Hovdhaugen | first2=Fred | last2=Karlsson | author-link2=Fred Karlsson | first3=Carol | last3=Henriksen | first4=Bengt | last4=Sigurd | year=2000 | title=The History of Linguistics in the Nordic Countries | location=Helsinki | publisher=Societas Scientiarum Fennica | isbn=951-653-305-1}} (Also [https://web.archive.org/web/20170830011352/http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/~fkarlsso/Hist_Ling_Nord.pdf preprint].) Page 214. Hovdhaugen et al. point to Jespersen's works "Mands sprog og kvindes tale", in ''Gads Magasin'' 1906–1907, pp.&nbsp;581–592; and ''Sproget: Barnet, Kvinden, Slægten'' (1941).</ref>

Linguists have been less patient with the content of "The Woman", a chapter within Jespersen's book ''Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin'' (1922): "he manages to include every stereotype about women that was current at the time";<ref>{{Cite book | first=Ronald | last=Macaulay | title=The Social Art: Language and Its Uses | edition=2nd | location=New York | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2006 | page=93 | isbn=978-0-19-518796-0}}</ref> "[the chapter offers] a compendium – and a grim one for that matter, filled with prejudices and misogyny – of long-standing commonplaces on women's contribution to the development of language."<ref>{{Cite book | chapter=Women in the history of linguistics: Distant and neglected voices | first1=Wendy | last1=Ayres-Bennett | author-link1=Wendy Ayres-Bennett | first2=Helena | last2=Sanson | editor-first1=Wendy | editor-last1=Ayres-Bennett | editor-first2=Helena | editor-last2=Sanson | pages=9–10 | title=Women in the History of Linguistics | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19-875495-4}}</ref>

However, [[Einar Haugen]] finds something of value: "Jespersen's data were inadequate, and his views sound sexist to today's feminists; but he caught one significant generalization: that many of the differences [between men's and women's speech] were due to the division of labor between men and women in most societies."<ref>{{Cite book | first=Einar | last=Haugen | author-link=Einar Haugen | chapter='Sexism' and the Norwegian language | title=Studies in Descriptive and Historical Linguistics: Festschrift for Winfred P. Lehmann | series=Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 4 | editor-first=Paul J. | editor-last=Hopper | editor-link=Paul J. Hopper | location=Amsterdam | publisher=John Benjamins | year=1977 | page=86 | isbn=90-272-0905-7}}</ref>

===Influences and allegiances===
During the decades of his activity, Jespersen followed what other, younger linguists were doing but refrained from unreservedly welcoming any advance, let alone from aligning himself with any new approach. He remained individualistic, but "there was a conservative streak in his radicalism"{{efn|1="[I]l y avait dans son radicalisme un trait conservateur"}} as he seemed to take seriously only the standpoints that had influenced him in his youth and to interpret newer work as mere repetition of this or that older theory.{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=129}}

Jespersen's main interest was not that of seeking patterns and explanations of the [[Langue and parole|''langue'' behind ''parole'']], but rather its opposite, the major concern of the phonetics and semantics of his youth: "the psychophysiological fact of ''parole''".{{efn|1="[La grande réalité] du fait psychophysiologique de la parole"}}{{sfnp|Hjelmslev|1943|p=129}}

==Travels and honours==
Jespersen visited the United States twice: he lectured at the Congress of Arts and Sciences in St.&nbsp;Louis in 1904, and in 1909–1910 he visited both the [[University of California]] and [[Columbia University]].{{Sfnp|Falk|1992|p=466}} While in the U.S., he studied its education system. His autobiography (''En sprogmands levned'') was first published in English translation (''A linguist's life'') as recently as 1995.

After his retirement in 1925, Jespersen remained active in the international linguistic community. As well as continuing to write, he convened and chaired the first International Meeting on Linguistic Research in Geneva in 1930, and presided over the Fourth International Congress of Linguists in Copenhagen in 1936.{{Sfnp|Falk|1992|p=466}}

Jespersen received honorary degrees from [[Columbia University]] in New York (1910), the [[University of St Andrews]] in Scotland (1925), and the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] in Paris (1927).{{sfnp|Haislund|1966}} He was one of the first six international scholars to be elected as honorary members of the [[Linguistic Society of America]].{{Sfnp|Falk|1992|p=466}} He was elected a foreign member of the [[Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1931.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00001114 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016130515/https://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00001114 |title=J.O.H. Jespersen (1860–1943) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |archive-date=16 October 2020}}</ref>

==Books by Jespersen==
* ''Praktisk Tilegnelse af fremmede Sprog'' ("Practical acquisition of foreign languages"). [A translation of Felix Franke, ''Die praktische Spracherlernung auf Grund der Psychologie und Physiologie der Sprache dargestellt von Felix Franke''.] Copenhagen: Carl Larsen, 1884. {{OCLC|466303017}}.
* ''Kortfattet engelsk Grammatik for Tale- og Skriftsproget'' ("A concise English grammar for the spoken and written language"). Copenhagen: Carl Larsen, 1885. {{OCLC|477786006}}. (Also later editions.)
* ''Fransk Læsebog efter Lydskriftsmethode'' ("A French reader using the phonetic method"). Copenhagen, 1889.
* ''The Articulations of Speech Sounds Represented by Means of Analphabetic Symbols''.<!-- NB not "antalphabetic", a word that Jespersen adopted only later. --> Marburg: N.G. Elwert, 1889. {{OCLC|903926262}}. [https://archive.org/details/articulationsofs00jespuoft/page/n3/mode/2up At the Internet Archive]; [https://archive.org/details/cu31924026451736/page/n3/mode/2up Again at the Internet Archive].
* ''Studier over engelske Kasus. Med en Indledning om Fremskridt i Sproget'' ("Studies on [[Grammatical case|case]] in English: With an introduction on progress in language"). [Jespersen's doctoral dissertation.] Copenhagen: Kleins Vorlag, 1891. {{OCLC|457568603}}. 
** ''Progress in Language: With Special Reference to English.'' London: [[Swan Sonnenschein & Co.]], 1894. {{OCLC|607098829}}. [https://archive.org/details/cu31924026448203 At the Internet Archive]. New York: [[Macmillan & Co]]. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1993; with an introduction by [[James D. McCawley]]. {{ISBN|9789027219923}}, {{ISBN|9781556193149}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-415-40258-3}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-415-86027-7}}. [Jespersen's adaptation of his doctoral dissertation.] 
** ''Chapters on English.'' London: George Allen & Unwin, 1918. {{OCLC|8977427}}. ''[[#selected_writings|Selected Writings]].'' 1960. Pp.&nbsp;153–346. ''Selected Writings.'' 2010. Pp.&nbsp;81–165. [Excerpted from ''Progress in Language.'']
* ''Chaucers Liv og Digtning'' ("Chaucer's life and poetry"). Studier fra Sprog- og Oldtidsforskning. Copenhagen: Klein, 1893. {{OCLC|246601722}}.
* With {{Ill|Christian Sarauw|lt=Chr[istian] Sarauw|da|Christian Sarauw (sprogforsker)|sv|Christian Sarauw (språkforskare)}}. ''Engelsk Begynderbog'' ("English primer"). 1895. {{OCLC|476427495}}. (Often later reprinted.){{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|pp=18, 38}}
* ''Fonetik: En systematisk Fremstilling af Læren om Sproglyd'' ("Phonetics: A systematic presentation of the study of the sounds of language"). Copenhagen: Schubotheske Forlag, 1899. {{OCLC|185591363}}.
** ''Phonetische Grundfragen'' ("Phonetics essentials"). Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1904. {{OCLC|1020799}}. [German translation by N.&nbsp;Andersen and Hermann Davidsen of portions of ''Fonetik''; with additions written by Jespersen.]
** ''Lehrbuch der Phonetik'' ("Textbook of phonetics"). Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1904. {{OCLC|1159076996}}. (Also later editions.) [German translation by Hermann Davidsen of portions of ''Fonetik''.]
* ''Sprogundervisning'' ("Language teaching"). Copenhagen: Det Schubotheske forlag, 1901. {{OCLC|16159085}}. 2nd ed. ("revised, less polemical"{{Sfnp|Sørensen|1989|p=41}}). Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1935. {{OCLC|29990346}}.
**''How to Teach a Foreign Language''. Translation by Sophia Yhlen-Olsen Bertelsen of ''Sprogundervisning.'' London: George Allen & Unwin, 1904. {{OCLC|1017209528}}. London: S.&nbsp;Sonnenschein & Co., 1904. [https://dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/cu31924026503387/cu31924026503387.pdf 1904 printing] and [https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7053273M/How_to_teach_a_foreign_language 1928 printing] at the Internet Archive. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-415-40245-3}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-415-61130-5}}.
* ''The England and America Reader.'' Copenhagen, 1904.
** ''A British Reader: Nybearb. af "The England and America Reader".'' 1931. {{OCLC|467735339}}. Edited by {{Ill|Carl Adolf Bodelsen|lt=C.A. Bodelsen|da|C.A. Bodelsen|sv|Carl Adolf Bodelsen}} and H.&nbsp;Helweg-Møller.
* ''Growth and Structure of the English Language.'' Leipzig: B.G. Teubner; New York: G.E. Stechert, 1905. {{OCLC|4287175}}. New York: Free Press, 1968. {{OCLC|1035146783}}. [https://archive.org/details/growthstructur00jesp/page/n3/mode/2up Free Press edition]. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1982; with a foreword by [[Randolph Quirk]]. {{ISBN|9780226398778}}, {{ISBN|9780631129868}}, {{ISBN|9780631129875}}.
* ''Modersmålets Fonetik'' ("Phonetics of the mother tongue"). Copenhagen: Schubotheske, 1906. {{OCLC|29995287}}. (Revised and augmented in later editions.{{Sfnp|Rischel|1989|p=55}}) 
* ''John Hart's Pronunciation of English (1569 and 1570).'' Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1907. Anglistische Forschungen, Heft 22. {{OCLC|1907819}}. [https://archive.org/details/johnhartspronunc00jespuoft/page/n3/mode/2up At the Internet Archive]. [About the content of [[John Hart (spelling reformer)|John Hart]]'s ''An Orthographie'' (1569) and ''A Methode or Comfortable Beginning for All Vnlearned, Whereby They May Bee Taught to Read English'' (1570).]
* ''[[A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles]].'' Seven "parts" (volumes), 1909–1949. Earliest parts first published by Carl Winter, Heidelberg, later parts by Ejnar Munksgaard, Copenhagen and George Allen & Unwin, London. Parts 5–7, issued without series title, have imprint: Copenhagen, E.&nbsp;Munksgaard, 1940–49; Imprint varies: Parts 5–6: London: George Allen & Unwin; part 7: Copenhagen: Munksgaard, London: George Allen & Unwin.
* ''Engelsk Fonetik.'' Copenhagen: Nordisk, 1912. Edited by H.&nbsp;Helwig-Møller. {{OCLC|961067561}}.
** ''English Phonetics: A Handbook for Scandinavian Students.'' Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1950. {{OCLC|465861807}}. Revised and translated by Bengt Jürgensen. 
* ''Sprogets Logik'' ("The logic of language"). Copenhagen: J.&nbsp;H. Schultz, 1913. {{OCLC|952935015}}.
* ''Nutidssprog hos Børn og Voxne'' ("Modern language in children and adults"). Copenhagen: Nordisk forlag, 1916. {{OCLC|8661242}}.
* ''Negation in English and Other Languages.'' Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab: Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser I, 5. Copenhagen: Andr. Fred. Høst og søn, 1917. {{OCLC|457568567}}. [https://archive.org/details/cu31924026632947 At the Internet Archive]; [http://publ.royalacademy.dk/books/260/1560?lang=en at the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters]. ''[[#selected_writings|Selected Writings]].'' 1960. Pp.&nbsp;1–152. ''Selected Writings.'' 2010. Pp.&nbsp;2–80.
* ''Rasmus Rask i Hundredåret efter hans Hovedværk'' ("[[Rasmus Rask]] a hundred years after his major work"). Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1918. {{OCLC|561462317}}. [https://slaegtsbibliotek.dk/909250.pdf At Danskernes Historie Online].
* ''De to Hovedarter av grammattiske Forbindelser'' ("The two main types of grammatical relations"). Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab: Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser IV, 3. Copenhagen: Andr. Fred. Høst og søn, 1921. {{OCLC|16310596}}. [http://publ.royalacademy.dk/books/229/1407?lang=en At the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters].
* ''Language: Its Nature, Development, and Origin.'' London: George Allen & Unwin, 1922. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1968. {{ISBN|0-04-400007-3}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-415-40247-7}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-415-84556-4}}.
* ''Sprogets Udvikling og Opstaaen'' ("The development and origin of language"). Copenhagen: V. Pio, 1926. {{OCLC|466067329}}.
* ''Børnesprog: En Bog for Foraldre'' ("Children's language: A book for parents"). Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1923. {{OCLC|492461187}}.
* ''The Philosophy of Grammar.'' London: George Allen & Unwin, 1924. {{OCLC|308037}}. [https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.9325/page/n5/mode/2up At the Internet Archive]. New York: Henry Holt, 1924. {{OCLC|19939152}}. New York: W.&nbsp;W. Norton, 1965. {{OCLC|1120578615}}. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992; with an introduction by James D. McCawley. {{ISBN|0-226-39881-1}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-415-40257-6}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-415-86027-7}}.
* ''Mankind, Nation and Individual: From a Linguistic Point of View.'' Oslo: H.&nbsp;Aschehoug, 1925. {{OCLC|1445547}}.  [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.105200/page/n3/mode/2up At the Internet Archive]. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-415-40248-4}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-415-86461-9}}.
* ''Et Verdenssprog: Et Forsøg på Spørsmålets Løsning'' ("A world language: An attempt to solve the question"). Copenhagen: V.&nbsp;Pios, 1928. {{OCLC|925814712}}.
* ''An International Language.'' London: George Allen & Unwin, 1928. {{OCLC|251023739}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-415-40246-0}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-415-84526-7}}. S.l.: Feedbooks, n.d. [https://web.archive.org/web/20180821115704/http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/14934 Archived] by the Wayback Machine on 21 August 2018. [The introduction of the [[Novial language]].]
* ''Novial Lexike: International Dictionary = Dictionnaire international = Internationales Wörterbuch.'' Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1930. {{OCLC|39992226}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-415-40256-9}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-415-86464-0}}. [http://www.blahedo.org/novial/nl.html Text file edition], blahedo.org (Don Blaheta). [Novial to English, French and German dictionary.] 
* ''Tanker og Studier'' ("Thoughts and studies"). Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1932. {{OCLC|1508095448}}. [Collection of papers in Danish.]
* ''Linguistica: Selected Papers in English, French and German.'' London: George Allen & Unwin; Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard, 1933. {{OCLC|459619574}}. [https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.16424/page/n5/mode/2up At Internet Archive]. College Park, Maryland: McGrath, 1970. {{OCLC|1000569708}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2015. {{ISBN|9781317439363}}, {{ISBN|9781315694368}}, {{ISBN|9781317439349}}, {{ISBN|9781317439356}}, {{ISBN|9781138908284}}, {{ISBN|9781138908529}}. <!-- Why all the ISBNs? But they're all provided in OCLC 914472354 -->
* ''Essentials of English Grammar.'' London: George Allen & Unwin, 1933. (And later impressions.) {{OCLC|1593202}}. Tokyo: Kaitakusha ({{Nihongo2|開拓社}}), 1943. 2nd ed. 1944. {{NCID|BA12049306}}. University of Alabama Press, 1965. {{OCLC|561462021}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-415-40244-6}}. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-415-84746-9}}. [Greatly condensed derivative of ''A Modern English Grammar''.]
* ''Analytic Syntax: A System of Expressing Grammatical Formulae by Symbols.'' London: George Allen & Unwin, [1937]. {{OCLC|5154890}}. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard, 1937. {{OCLC|1469370}}. New York: Rinehart & Winston, 1969. {{OCLC|463148117}}. Tokyo: Senjo, 1971. {{OCLC|21741533}}. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984; with an introduction by James D. McCawley. {{ISBN|0-226-39880-3}}.
* {{Anchor|autobio}}''En Sprogmands Levned'' ("A linguist's life"). Copenhagen, 1938. {{OCLC|7136679}}. [Jespersen's autobiography.]
**''A Linguist's Life: An English Translation of Otto Jespersen’s Autobiography with Notes, Photos and a Bibliography.'' Translated by David Stoner, edited by Arne Juul, [[Hans Frede Nielsen]] and [[Jørgen Erik Nielsen]], foreword by Paul Christophersen. Odense: Odense University Press, 1995. ({{ISBN|87-7838-132-0}})
* ''Sproget: Barnet, Kvinden, Slægten'' ("Language: Child, woman, family"). Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1941. {{OCLC|247794469}}.
* ''Efficiency in Linguistic Change''. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filosofiske Meddelelser 27, 4, 1941. 2nd ed. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1949. 3rd ed. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1969. [http://publ.royalacademy.dk/books/253/1534?lang=en At the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters]. ''[[#selected_writings|Selected Writings]].'' 1960. Pp.&nbsp;381–466. ''Selected Writings.'' 2010. Pp.&nbsp;190–231.
* {{Anchor|selected_writings}}''Selected Writings.'' London: George Allen & Unwin; Tokyo: Senjo, 1960. {{OCLC|213821474}}. [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.282785/mode/2up At the Internet Archive]. London: Routledge, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-415-57137-1}}, {{ISBN|978-0-203-85719-9}}.

==Personal life==
As a student, Jespersen enjoyed chess and reading French and English literature.{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|p=14}}

Jespersen married Ane Marie Djørup on 13 April 1897; the couple, later together with their son, lived in [[Frederiksberg]] (distinct from Copenhagen but geographically part of it), until their move in 1901 to Ermelundsly, a large house in [[Jægersborg]], near [[Gentofte]]. In 1934 they again moved to a large house, Lundehave, in the outskirts of [[Helsingør]], provided by the [[Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters]] for a distinguished academician.{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|p=20}}

Ane Marie died on 30 March 1937. Jespersen became ill in December 1942; he died on 30 April 1943, and his urn was interred in a cemetery at [[Helsingør]].{{Sfnp|Nielsen|1989b|pp=25–26}}

==See also==
*[[Interlinguistics]]
*[[Jespersen's Cycle]]
*[[Prosiopesis]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Works cited==
{{refbegin|2}}
<!-- A  -->
* {{Cite book|first1=Bas|last1=Aarts|first2=Sylvia|last2=Chalker|first3=Edmund|last3=Weiner|authorlink3=Edmund Weiner|title=The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar|date=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-174444-0|edition=2nd|location=Oxford}}
<!-- B  -->
* {{Cite book | author-link=Hans Basbøll |last=Basbøll | first=Hans | year=2021 | chapter-url=https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/publications/otto-jespersen-a-great-phonetician-and-linguist-in-his-danish-con | chapter=Otto Jespersen: A great phonetician and linguist in his Danish context | editor-last=Qu |editor-first=Changliang <!-- 曲長亮 --> | script-title=zh:叶斯柏森论语音 = ''Otto Jespersen on Phonetics'' | location=Beijing | publisher=Commercial Press | pages=436–470 | isbn=9787100202923 | via=University of Southern Denmark}}
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<!-- E  -->
<!-- F  -->
* {{Cite journal | last=Falk | first=Julia S. | author-link=Julia S. Falk | year=1992 | title=Otto Jespersen, Leonard Bloomfield, and American structural linguistics | journal=Language | volume=68 | number=3 | pages=465–491 | doi=10.2307/415791 | jstor=415791}}
* {{Cite journal | last=Falk | first=Julia S. | author-link=Julia S. Falk | title=Words without grammar: Linguists and the international language movement in the United States | journal=Language and Communication | volume=15 | number=3 | pages=241–259 | year=1995 | doi=10.1016/0271-5309(95)00010-N}}
<!-- G  -->
<!-- H  -->
* {{Cite book | chapter=Otto Jespersen | chapter-url=https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/read/untitled-82cf7470-9317-4434-915b-f0f25f3620fe/section/3e680b2e-39bb-434b-b6b1-022bcc522231 | first=Niels | last=Haislund | editor-first=Thomas A. | editor-last=Sebeok | editor-link=Thomas A. Sebeok | title=Portraits of Linguists: A Biographical Sourcebook for the History of Western Linguistics, 1746–1963: 2, From Eduard Sievers to Benjamin Lee Whorf | location=Bloomington | publisher=Indiana University Press | year=1966 | orig-date=1943 | via=Indiana University Press}} Reprint of {{Cite journal| title=Otto Jespersen |first=Niels |last=Haislund | journal=Englische Studien | volume=75 |year=1943 | pages=273–282 | language=en}}
* {{Cite journal | first=Louis | last=Hjelmslev | author-link=Louis Hjelmslev | title=Otto Jespersen | journal=Acta Linguistica | volume=3 | year=1943 | pages=119–130 | url=https://archive.org/details/acta-linguistica-hafniensia_1942-1943_3/page/118/mode/2up | via=Internet Archive | language=fr}} Reprinted within {{Cite book | pages=41–54 | first=Louis | last=Hjelmslev | chapter=Otto Jespersen | title=Essais linguistiques II | series=Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague | volume=14 | location=Copenhagen | publisher=Nordisk Sprog- og Kulturforlag | year=1973 | url=https://lingvistkredsen.ku.dk/udgivelser/travaux/arkiv/tclc_14.pdf}} Also reprinted within {{Cite book | chapter-url=https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/read/untitled-82cf7470-9317-4434-915b-f0f25f3620fe/section/3e680b2e-39bb-434b-b6b1-022bcc522231 | first1=Niels | last1=Haislund | first2=Louis | last2=Hjelmslev | chapter=Otto Jespersen (1860–1943) | editor-first=Thomas A. | editor-last=Sebeok | editor-link=Thomas A. Sebeok | title=Portraits of Linguists: A Biographical Sourcebook for the History of Western Linguistics, 1746–1963: 2, From Eduard Sievers to Benjamin Lee Whorf | location=Bloomington | publisher=Indiana University Press | year=1966 | via=Indiana University Press}}
<!-- I  -->
<!-- J  -->
* {{Cite book | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | title=An International Language | location=London | publisher=George Allen & Unwin | year=1928 | url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015004290410&seq=9 | via=Hathitrust | oclc=251023739}}
* {{Cite book | editor-last1=Juul | editor-first1=Arne | editor-link2=Hans Frede Nielsen | editor-first2=Hans F. | editor-last2=Nielsen | title=Otto Jespersen: Facets of His Life and Work | series=Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science 52 | location=Amsterdam | publisher=John Benjamins | year=1989 | isbn=9789027278357 | url=https://archive.org/details/ottojespersenfac0000unse | via=Internet Archive}}
** {{harvc | first=W. Nelson | last=Francis | author-link=W. Nelson Francis | chapter=Otto Jespersen as grammarian | pages=79–99 | in1=Juul | in2=Nielsen | year=1989}}
** {{harvc | first=Fritz | last=Larsen | chapter=Jespersen's new international auxiliary language | pages=101–122 | in1=Juul | in2=Nielsen | year=1989}}
** {{harvc | first=Hans Frede | last=Nielsen | author-link=Hans Frede Nielsen | chapter=On Otto Jespersen's view of language evolution | pages=61–78 | in1=Juul | in2=Nielsen | year=1989 | anchor-year=1989a}}
** {{harvc | first=Jørgen Erik | last=Nielsen | author-link=Jørgen Erik Nielsen | chapter=Otto Jespersen and Copenhagen University | pages=13–28 | in1=Juul | in2=Nielsen | year=1989 | anchor-year=1989b}}
** {{harvc | first=Jørgen | last=Rischel | author-link=Jørgen Rischel | chapter=Otto Jespersen's contribution to Danish and general phonetics | pages=43–60 | in1=Juul | in2=Nielsen | year=1989}}
** {{harvc | first=Knud | last=Sørensen | author-link= | chapter=The teaching of English in Denmark and Otto Jespersen | pages=29–41 | in1=Juul | in2=Nielsen | year=1989}}
<!-- K  -->
* {{Cite journal | first=Inge | last=Kabell | date=November 2000 | title=Jespersen and Franke: An academic friendship by correspondence | journal=Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas Bulletin | volume=35 | number=1 | pages=27–37 | doi=10.1080/02674971.2000.11745522}}
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* {{Cite book | first=James D. | last=McCawley | author-link=James D. McCawley | title=The Syntactic Phenomena of English | location=Chicago | publisher=University of Chicago Press | year=1988}} Volume 1: {{ISBN|0-226-55623-9}} and {{ISBN|0-226-55624-7}}. Volume 2: {{ISBN|0-226-55625-5}} and {{ISBN|0-226-55626-3}}.
* {{Cite journal | first=James | last=McElvenny | author-link=James McElvenny | title=Linguistic aesthetics from the nineteenth to the twentieth century: The case of Otto Jespersen's ''Progress in Language'' | journal=History of Humanities | issn=2379-3163 | eissn=2379-3171 | date=September 2017 | pages=417–442 | doi=10.1086/693322}}
<!-- N  -->
<!-- O  -->
* {{Cite journal | title=English language studies in Denmark | first=Lektor K. V. | last=Olsen | journal=ELT Journal | volume=1 | number=6 | date=May 1947 | pages=157–162 | doi=10.1093/elt/1.6.157}}
<!-- P  -->
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<!-- R  -->
<!-- S  -->
<!-- T  -->
<!-- U  -->
<!-- V  -->
* {{Cite book | first=Ton | last=van der Wouden | title=Negative Contexts: Collocation, Polarity and Multiple Negation | location=London | publisher=Routledge | year=1997 | isbn=0-415-13849-3}}
<!-- W  -->
<!-- X  -->
<!-- Y  -->
<!-- Z  -->
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* Andersen, Alsing;<!-- Not sure if this is the famed Alsing Andersen (the Socialist) --> [[Vilhelm Andersen]]; {{Ill|Carl Adolf Bodelsen|da|C.A. Bodelsen|sv|Carl Adolf Bodelsen}}; [[Harald Bohr]]; [[Niels Bohr]]; [[Viggo Brøndal]]; Torsten Dahl; Niels Haislund; Chr. <!-- Christian? Christopher? something else? --> Nielsen; [[Valdemar Poulsen]]; Valdemar Østerberg, eds. ''Hilsen til Otto Jespersen på Firs-aarsdagen 16. juli 1940'' ("Greetings to Otto Jespersen on his eightieth birthday, 16 July 1940"). Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1940. {{OCLC|13021793}}
* Bøgholm, Niels; Aage Brusendorff; and {{Ill|Carl Adolf Bodelsen|da|C.A. Bodelsen|sv|Carl Adolf Bodelsen}}, eds. ''A Grammatical Miscellany offered to Otto Jespersen on His Seventieth Birthday.'' Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard; London: George Allen & Unwin, 1930. {{OCLC|2335192}}.
* Cerbasi, Donato. ''Introduzione ad Otto Jespersen.'' Rome: Nuova Cultura, 2011. {{ISBN|9788861347649}}.
* {{Nihongo2|石橋幸太郎、他}} ({{Ill|Kōtarō Ishibashi|lt=Ishibashi, Kōtarō|ja|石橋幸太郎}}; et al). {{Nihongo2|O.イエスペルセン}} (''O. Jespersen''). {{Nihongo2|不死鳥英文法ライブラリ}}. Tokyo: Nan'undō, 1964. {{NCID|BN07459377}}.
* Juul, Arne; and [[Hans Frede Nielsen|Hans F. Nielsen]], eds. ''Otto Jespersen: Facets of His Life and Work.'' Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, vol. 52. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1989. {{ISBN|9789027278357}}. [https://archive.org/details/ottojespersenfac0000unse At the Internet Archive].
* {{Nihongo2|宮畑一郎}} (Miyahata, Ichirō). {{Nihongo2|イェスペルセン研究}} (''Jespersen kenkyū''). Tokyo: Kobian Shobō, 1985. {{ISBN|4875580207}}, {{NCID|BN00673040}}.
* [[Jørgen Erik Nielsen|Nielsen, Jørgen Erik]]; and Arne Zettersten, eds. ''A Literary Miscellany: Proceedings of the Otto Jespersen Symposium April 29–30, 1993.'' Copenhagen: Department of English, University of Copenhagen, 1994. {{ISBN|8788648605}}.

==External links==
* {{Commonscatinline}}
* {{wikisource-inline}}
* {{Gutenberg author|id=47187}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Otto Jespersen}}
* "[http://interlanguages.net/OJbiblio.html Otto Jespersen Online Bibliography]", ''International Auxiliary Languages.''
* "[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/302975/Otto-Jespersen Otto Jespersen]", ''Encyclopædia Britannica''

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jespersen, Otto}}
[[Category:Otto Jespersen|*]]
[[Category:Linguists of English]]
[[Category:1860 births]]
[[Category:1943 deaths]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford]]
[[Category:Constructed language creators]]
[[Category:Corresponding fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Danish autobiographers]]
[[Category:Idists]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:19th-century Danish linguists]]
[[Category:Novial]]
[[Category:People from Frederiksberg]]
[[Category:People from Gentofte Municipality]]
[[Category:People from Helsingør]]
[[Category:People from Randers]]
[[Category:Phoneticians]]
[[Category:Rectors of the University of Copenhagen]]
[[Category:Syntacticians]]
[[Category:20th-century Danish linguists]]
[[Category:University of Copenhagen alumni]]