Dubravko Škiljan (October 31, 1949 in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

– July 21, 2007 in Zagreb), was a Croatian

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

known for his work on Classical

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

and

semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

Life

After finishing primary school and classical gymnasium in Zagreb, he enrolled the

Faculty of Philosophy A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

at the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb (, ) is a public university, public research university in Zagreb, Croatia. It is the largest Croatian university and one of the oldest continuously operating universities in Europe. The University of Zagreb and the Unive ...

where he graduated in 1972 in

theoretical linguistics Theoretical linguistics is a term in linguistics that, like the related term general linguistics, can be understood in different ways. Both can be taken as a reference to the theory of language, or the branch of linguistics that inquires into the ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

and their literatures. He received his MA in archeology in 1974 with the thesis ''Greek language of the monuments of Late Antique Salona'', and in 1976 his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

with the theoretical-linguistics thesis titled ''Linguistics and dialectics''. Since 1972, he worked as a professor of Latin and Ancient Greek in a primary school, and from 1974 on at the

Classical Gymnasium in Zagreb The Classical Gymnasium () is a Gymnasium (school), gymnasium high school (similar to a grammar school in England and Wales) situated in Zagreb, Croatia. Originally founded by the Society of Jesus in 1607, it now operates in the Križanićeva gymn ...

. In 1977 he received a full-time job, first as a teacher assistant, then as a

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

(since 1977), and finally as a regular professor in 1986, re-elected in 1992, at the Department of General linguistics at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. During that period, he served as the head of the department, and soon after their foundation, the head of departments of

applied linguistics Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field which identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, psychology, Communication stu ...

and

. In one turn he served both as the head of the department and a prodean for teaching. In the period of 1996–2003 he served as a professor of linguistics and semiotics at the ''Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis'', the faculty of post-graduate humanities studies at the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana (, , ), abbreviated UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 38,000 enrolled students. The university has 23 faculties and three art academies with approximately 4,000 teaching and re ...

, where he wrote a post-graduate and doctoral study regarding the speech linguistics and the theory of societal communication, serving as the coordinator of the study. Soon after he returned to his duty of a regular professor of the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. From 1973 to his death he published more than 250 papers in general and

history of linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language, involving analysis of language form, language meaning, and language in context. Language use was first systematically documented in Mesopotamia, with extant lexical lists of the 3rd to the 2nd ...

and

classical philology Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, ...

(of it 36 in form of books or monographs), participated in numerous scientific conferences in his country and abroad, and led several scientific projects in

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

and

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. Besides the regular teaching activity in undergraduate and postgraduate courses, he gave lectures in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

( CEU),

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

( Sorbonne),

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

(''Scuola superiore per traduttori e interpreti''),

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; #Name, see below for other names) is the List of cities in Serbia, second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannoni ...

and elsewhere. He served as a mentor for numerous PhD and MA students in Zagreb and Ljubljana. His book ''Mappa mundi'' has earned him the ''Kiklop'' award in 2006. He died in Zagreb in 2007, following a prolonged illness.

Works

* 1976 ''Dinamika jezičnih struktura'' * 1980 ''Pogled u lingvistiku'' * 1985 ''U pozadini znaka'' * 1988 ''Jezična politika'' * 1991 ''Kraj lingvistike?'' * 2000 ''Javni jezik'' * 2002 ''Govor nacije: jezik, nacija, Hrvati'' * 2006 ''Mappa mundi'' * 2007 ''Vježbe iz semantike ljubavi''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Skiljan, Dubravko Linguists from Croatia Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni Academic staff of the University of Zagreb Scientists from Zagreb 1949 births 2007 deaths Deaths from cancer in Croatia Deaths from pancreatic cancer 20th-century Croatian linguists