Eugenio Coșeriu ( ro, Eugen Coșeriu, ; July 27, 1921 – September 7, 2002) was a

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

who specialized in

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

, author of over 50 books, honorary member of the Romanian Academy. In 1970 he coined the terms diatopic, diastratic and diaphasic to describe

linguistic variation Variation is a characteristic of language: there is more than one way of saying the same thing. Speakers may vary pronunciation (Accent (sociolinguistics), accent), word choice (lexicon), or morphology and syntax (sometimes called "grammar"). But ...

.Kastovsky, D. and Mettinger A. (eds.)
The History of English in a Social Context: A Contribution to Historical Sociolinguistics
', ''Introduction'', p.xiii

Biography

Coșeriu was born on July 27, 1921 in Mihăileni, a small

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n town that today lies in the

Republic of Moldova A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

. He attended

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Bălți Bălți (; russian: Бельцы, , uk, Бєльці, , yi, בעלץ ) is a city in Moldova. It is the second largest city in terms of population, area and economic importance, after Chișinău. The city is one of the five Moldovan municipalit ...

, where

Vadim Pirogan Vadim Pirogan (28 June 1921 in Bălţi – 16 January 2007 in Chişinău) was a Bessarabian activist and author. He was the head of the Communist Regime Victims Association and a member of the Moldovan Writers' Union. Biography Vadim Pir ...

and

Sergiu Grossu Sergiu Grossu (14 November 1920 in Cubolta – 25 July 2009 in Bucharest) was a Romanian writer and theologian. Biography Sergiu Grossu was born to Ion and Maria Grossu on 14 November 1920 in Cubolta. In 1927, his family moved to Bălţi, where ...

were his classmates. After his studies at the

University of Iași The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University (Romanian: ''Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza"''; acronym: UAIC) is a public university located in Iași, Romania. Founded by an 1860 decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, under whom the former Academia Mih ...

, he went to Italy in 1940 with a scholarship of the

Istituto Italiano di Cultura The Istituto Italiano di Cultura, the Italian Cultural Institute in English, is a worldwide non-profit organization created by the Italian government. It promotes Italian culture and is involved in the teaching of the Italian language. The creat ...

and continued to study at

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a Public university, public research university l ...

, where he earned his PhD in 1944 under the direction of , with a dissertation about the influence of the

Chanson de geste The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th cen ...

on the folk poetry of the

South Slavic peoples South Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak South Slavic languages and inhabit a contiguous region of Southeast Europe comprising the eastern Alps and the Balkan Peninsula. Geographically separated from the West Slavs and East Slavs by Austria, Hun ...

. In 1944–1945 Coșeriu was at the

University of Padua The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from B ...

, then from 1945 to 1949 at the

University of Milan The University of Milan ( it, Università degli Studi di Milano; la, Universitas Studiorum Mediolanensis), known colloquially as UniMi or Statale, is a public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Europe ...

, where he a obtained a PhD degree in philosophy, under the supervision of

Antonio Banfi Antonio Banfi (Vimercate, 30 September 1886 – Milano, 22 July 1957) was an Italian philosopher and senator. He is also noted for founding the Italian philosophical school called critical rationalism. Although influenced by the Marburg neo- ...

. Coșeriu was active at the

University of the Republic The University of the Republic ( es, Universidad de la República, sometimes ''UdelaR'') is Uruguay's oldest public university. It is by far the country's largest university, as well as the second largest public university in South America and t ...

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

as Professor of General and Indo-European Linguistics from 1950 to 1958. He then held visiting positions at the

University of Málaga The University of Málaga (UMA, ''Universidad de Málaga'') is a public university ranked 23 among all Spanish universities and 683 in the world. It was established in 1972 and has, as of 2016, 30,203 Bachelor students and 2576 on a Master's pr ...

and the

University of Navarra , image = UNAV.svg , latin_name = Universitas Studiorum Navarrensis , established = 17 October 1952 , type = Private, Roman Catholic , chancellor = Fernando Ocáriz Braña , president = María Iraburu Eliz ...

and a teaching position at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coi ...

. From 1961 to 1963 he was invited professor at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

and the University of Frankfurt, after which he moved permanently to the

, where he held the Professor of Romance Linguistics position until his retirement in 1991. He was elected honorary member of the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its byl ...

in 1991.

Honours

* Biblioteca Municipală "Eugeniu Coșeriu",

* Colocviul Internațional de științe ale Limbajului "Eugeniu Coșeriu" * "Eugen Coșeriu" High School Mihăileni, Bălți

Selected works

* Eugeniu Coșeriu, ''Teoría del lenguaje y lingüística general'', Madrid, 1973 * Eugeniu Coșeriu, ''Sincronía, diacronía e historia'', Madrid, 1973 * Eugeniu Coșeriu, ''Principios de semántica estructural'', Madrid, 1978. * Eugeniu Coșeriu, ''El hombre y su lenguaje: estudios de teoría y metodología lingüística'', Madrid, 1985. * Eugeniu Coșeriu, ''Tradición y novedad en la ciencia del lenguaje'', Madrid, 1977. * Eugeniu Coșeriu, ''Gramatica, semántica, universales'', Madrid, 1978. * Eugeniu Coșeriu, ''Lecții de lingvistică generală'', Chișinău, ARC Publishing House, 2000. * Eugeniu Coșeriu, "Limbaj și politică", in ''Revista de lingvistică și știință literară'', 5/1996. * Eugeniu Coșeriu, „Latinitatea orientală”, in ''Limba Română este patria mea. Studii. Comunicări. Documente'', Chișinău, 1996, pp. 15–31. * Eugeniu Coșeriu, „Unitatea limbii române – planuri și criterii”. Ibidem. p. 205-121. * Eugeniu Coșeriu and Horst Geckeler. ''Trends in structural semantics''. (Tübinger Beiträge zur Linguistik, 158). Tübingen: Narr. 1981.

References

External links

*
Evocare Eugeniu Coșeriu
* Liceul Teoretic „Ion Creangă” din Bălți {{DEFAULTSORT:Coseriu, Eugenio 1921 births 2002 deaths Romanian people of Moldovan descent People from Bălți People from Rîșcani District Linguists from Romania Alexandru Ioan Cuza University alumni Sapienza University of Rome alumni University of Milan alumni Romanian expatriates in Uruguay University of the Republic (Uruguay) faculty Romanian expatriates in Germany University of Tübingen faculty 20th-century linguists Romanian expatriates in Italy Translation scholars