László Antal was a Hungarian linguist, structuralist,

Doctor of Science A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

(1981), and Professor of

Linguistics 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 ...

. He was considered the sole representative of structural linguistics in America in Hungary. He adapted American structuralism to the

Hungarian language Hungarian, or Magyar (, ), is an Ugric language of the Uralic language family spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighboring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Out ...

. He was a lone wolf in Hungarian linguistics.

Life

Antal was born in Szob, Hungary on 25 June 1930. In 1962, he was awarded a Ford Scholarship to the United States in the

academic year An academic year, or school year, is a period that schools, colleges and university, universities use to measure the duration of studies for a given educational level. Academic years are often divided into academic terms. Students attend classe ...

s of 1964–1965. He was a

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Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

between 1981 and 1986. He left Hungary first for Germany then for the United States in 1985 when he was appointed to the head of the

General 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 ...

Department in ELTE in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. He settled in

Manassas Manassas (), formerly Manassas Junction, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. The population was 42,772 at the 2020 Census. It is the county seat of Prince William County, although the two are separate jurisdi ...

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. He was a professor in the

Foreign Service Institute The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the United States federal government's primary training institution for members of the U.S. foreign service community, preparing American diplomats as well as other professionals to advance U.S. foreign ...

and an advisor at the

Jamestown Foundation The Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.–based non-partisan defense policy think tank. Founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet defectors, its stated mission is to inform and educate policy makers about events and trends, which ...

. He died in

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, of a

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, in 1993. He spoke several languages, such as English, German, Russian, French,

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

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, and Indonesian, fluently.

References

Selected works

This bibliography contains only the works that were published in English.

Books

*Antal, László 1963: ''Questions of Meaning'', Mouton, The Hague. *Antal, László 1964: ''Content, Meaning, and Understanding'', Mouton. The Hague.

Papers

*Antal, László 1961: Sign, Meaning, Context, '' Lingua'' 10, 211-9. *Antal, László 1963: A new type of dictionary, ''

'' 1, 75-84. * * * *Antal, László 1992: Another calamity of quotas. N.h. ew York é.n. {{DEFAULTSORT:Antal, Laszlo 1930 births 1993 deaths People from Szob People from Manassas, Virginia Hungarian emigrants to the United States Structuralists 20th-century Hungarian linguists