Frederick Bodmer (actually ''Friedrich Bodmer'') (14 February 1894 – 2 January 1960) was a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and author of the popular book ''The Loom of Language''.

Life

He wrote his PhD thesis in 1924 at

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

on the topic ''Studies about a dialogue in Nathan by

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (, ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the developmen ...

'' (''Studien zum Dialog in Lessings Nathan''). After that he taught in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and at

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

. Later he held a position within the Department of Modern Languages at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT). He was succeeded in his position at MIT by

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

in 1955.Linguistics at MIT: a personal view on how it all began
(web.mit.edu)

Bibliography

*Frederick Bodmer
''The Loom of Language: A Guide To Foreign Languages For The Home Student''
London:

George Allen & Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It went on to become one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and to establish an ...

, 1944 (Primers for the Age of Plenty, No. 3). Edited and arranged by

Lancelot Hogben Lancelot Thomas Hogben FRS FRSE (9 December 1895 – 22 August 1975) was a British experimental zoologist and medical statistician. He developed the African clawed frog ''(Xenopus laevis)'' as a model organism for biological research in his ear ...

. .

References

External links

Speaking Volumes: Frederick Bodmer's The Loom of Language
(a detailed British review from 1997) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bodmer, Frederick Linguists from Switzerland Swiss philologists Academic staff of the University of Cape Town MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty University of Zurich alumni 1894 births 1960 deaths 20th-century linguists 20th-century philologists