Charles Bally facts for kids

Charles Bally (born February 4, 1865, died April 10, 1947) was an important Swiss linguist. A linguist is someone who studies language. He was part of a group of language experts known as the Geneva School.

Charles Bally was born in Geneva, Switzerland. His father, Jean Gabriel, was a teacher, and his mother, Henriette, owned a cloth store. He was married three times during his life. Bally is well-known for helping to edit the famous book Course in General Linguistics, which was based on the lectures of another important linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure.

Early Life and Education

Charles Bally studied old languages like Latin and Greek, and also literature, in Geneva from 1883 to 1885. He then continued his studies in Berlin, Germany, from 1886 to 1889. There, he earned his Ph.D., which is a high university degree.

Teaching Career

After finishing his studies, Bally worked as a private teacher for the royal family in Greece from 1889 to 1893. When he returned to Geneva, he started teaching at a business school in 1893. Later, from 1913 to 1939, he taught at a grammar school called the Progymnasium.

He also taught at the university in Geneva. From 1913 to 1939, he became a professor of general linguistics. He took over this important role from his fellow Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure.

Contributions to Linguistics

Charles Bally wrote many works about the French language. He also wrote about challenges in French language teaching. He was interested in how different languages could be created to help people communicate better. He even worked as an advisor for a group that later created a language called Interlingua in 1951.

Today, Charles Bally is seen as a founder of linguistic theories of style. This means he helped create ways to study how language is used to express feelings or create certain effects. He is also honored for his ideas on phraseology, which is the study of common phrases and expressions in a language. He explored how words and phrases can show emotion.

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  Charles Bally