André Martinet

André Martinet (French: [ɑ̃.dʁe maʁ.ti.nɛ]; Saint-Alban-des-Villards, 12 April 1908 – Châtenay-Malabry, 16 July 1999) was a French linguist, influential by his work on structural linguistics.

Martinet passed his agrégation in English and received his doctorate after submitting, as is traditional in France, two theses: La gémination consonantique d'origine expressive dans les langues germaniques and La phonologie du mot en danois. From 1938 to 1946, he was a director of studies of the École pratique des hautes études. Following World War II, he moved to New York City, where he was to remain until 1955.

In New York, he directed the International Auxiliary Language Association and taught at Columbia University, where he served as chair of the department from 1947 to 1955. Also, he became editor of Word, a linguistics journal. In 1955, he returned to his position at École Pratique des Hautes Études and took up a chair in general linguistics at the Sorbonne, and then Paris V. He continued to be active professionally by serving as president of the European Linguistic Society and founding both the Society for Functional Linguistics and the journal La Linguistique.

The Prague School of linguistics was one of Martinet's main influences, and he is known for pioneering a functionalist approach to syntax, which led to a violent polemic with Noam Chomsky. He wrote over twenty books on topics ranging from historical linguistics (Économie des changements phonétiques, 1955) to general linguistic theory. His most widely known work, Elements of General Linguistics (1960) has been translated into 17 languages and has influenced a generation of students, both in France and abroad.

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