Alexander Schenker
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Alexander M. Schenker (December 20, 1924 – August 21, 2019) was an
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
Slavist of Polish descent, professor of Slavic linguistics at Yale University, and the recipient of the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Slavic Studies for his contributions to the field of Polish studies, as well for the general contributions to the development of the field of Slavic studies in the United States.


Biography

Schenker was born to a Jewish family in Kraków in 1924, the son of Oskar Szenker and Gizela née Szamińska. He was enrolled at the university in Dushanbe (then ''Stalinabad'') in Tajikistan during World War II. Later he studied at the Sorbonne, receiving his Ph.D. from Yale in 1953, where he eventually settled as a professor of
Slavic studies Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was prim ...
.


Work

At Yale University in the 1950s he participated in the creation of one of America's leading programs of Slavic languages and literatures, culminating in what was to become a classic textbook for teaching Polish in English: ''Beginning Polish'' (1966). His other notable works include: * Polish Declension (1964), monograph * Polish Conjugation (1954), article * Gender Categories in Polish (1955), article * Some Remarks on Polish Quantifiers (1971), article * The Slavic Literary Languages: Formation and Development, coedited with Edward Stankiewicz (1980), * The Dawn of Slavic: An Introduction to Slavic Philology (1996), his greatest book, receiving MLA'ss Scaglione Prize for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures. * The Bronze Horseman: Falconet's Monument to Peter the Great (2003)


References


Alexander M. Schenker, winner of the 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies


External links


The Dawn of Slavic
- The first chapter of ''The Dawn of Slavic: An Introduction to Slavic Philology'', in PDF {{DEFAULTSORT:Schenker, Alexander M. Slavists Writers from Kraków Polish emigrants to the United States University of Paris alumni Yale University alumni Yale University faculty American people of Polish-Jewish descent 1924 births 2019 deaths Polish expatriates in the Soviet Union Polish expatriates in France