Dubravko Škiljan (Zagreb, October 31st, 1949 - Zagreb, July 21st, 2007), was a Croatian linguist, known for his work on Classical philology and semiotics.
Biography
After finishing primary school and classical gymnasium in Zagreb, he enrolled to the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb where he graduated in 1972 theoretical linguistics, Latin, Ancient Greek and their literatures. He received his M.A. in archeology in 1974 witj the thesis Greek language of the monuments of Late Antique Salona, and in 1976 his Ph.D. with the theoretical-linguistics thesis titled Linguistics and dialectics.
Since 1972 he works as a professor of Latin and Ancient Greek in a primary school, and since 1974 at the Classical Gymnasium in Zagreb. In 1977 he received full-time job, first as a teacher assistant, then as a docent (since 1977), and finally as a regular professor in 1986, re-elected in 1992, at the Department for General linguistics at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. In that period he served as a head of the department, and soon after their foundation, of departments for applied linguistics and semiotics. 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, in Ljubljana, where he founded in 1998 post-graduate and doctoral study of the speech linguistics and the theory of societal communication, serving as the coordinator of the study. Soon after he returns 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 theoretical linguistics, history of linguistics, semiotics, applied linguistics and classical philology (of it 36 in form of books or monographs), has participated in numerous scientific conferences in his country and abroad, and lead several scientific projects in Croatia and Slovenia. Besides the regular teaching activity in undergraduate and postgraduate courses, he held lectures in Prague (CEU), Paris (Sorbonne), Trieste (Scuola superiore per traduttori e interpreti), Sarajevo, Novi Sad etc. He served as a mentor for numerous Ph.D. and M.A. students in Zagreb and Ljubljana. His book Mappa mundi has earned him Kiklop award in 2006.
He died in Zagreb, July 21st 2007, after long and heavy 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