User:Mbisbee/sandbox

My reworking of article:

Vilém Mathesius

Vilém Mathesius
Born	(1882-08-03)August 3, 1882 Pardubice, Austrio-Hungary
Died	April 12, 1945(1945-04-12) (aged 62) Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Nationality	Czech
Occupation	Professor
Known for	Prague Linguistic Circle
Academic background
Alma mater	Charles University
Academic work
Discipline	Linguist
Sub-discipline	Functionalism

Vilém Mathesius (3 August 1882, Pardubice – 12 April 1945, Prague) was a Czech linguist and literary historian and a co-founder of the Prague Linguistic Circle.

He received his early education at a gymnázium in Kolín, studying Latin, Greek, German, and Czech, and gaining his enduring interest in English from Protestant Pastor Čeněk Dušek. He went on to study Germanic philology at Charles University, earning his PhD in 1907 and a second doctorate in 1909 while working as a German teacher in Plzeň. In 1912 he became the first professor of English philology at Charles University. His cousin, the poet Bohumil Mathesius, also taught philosophy at Charles University.

With the help of Roman Jakobson, in 1926 he found the Prague Linguistic Circle, which he presided over until his death. He was also the editor-in-chief for two linguistic journals: Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague (“Works of the Prague Linguistic Circle”), and Slovo a slovesnost (“Word and literacy”).

His intellectual development is typically divided into three periods based on his main interests and publications. From to 1910-1926 most of his work was built around the history of English literature, on which he published two major volumes, but in 1911 he also gave one of his more celebrated lectures, "On the Potentiality of Language Phenomena" (Czech title: O potenciálnosti jevů jazykových), revealing his burgeoning interest in linguistics. In the period from 1926 to 1936, during the early years of the Prague Linguistic Circle, syntax and semantics were at the forefront of his research, and from 1936 until his death in 1945 his work focused on functionalism and stylistics of English and Czech.

As he began to lose his eyesight in 1922 due to tuberculosis of the spine, his studies also moved more toward spoken language. Some of his students, including René Wellek and Bohumil Trnka, both members of the Prague Linguistic Society, assisted him in his teaching, reading, and writing when he became blind.

He died on 12 April 1945 in Prague.

Personal Life and Studies

Vilém was born as the second and youngest of two sons of Bedřich and Evelina Mathesius. His father was a wealthy tanner in a long line of tanners of Saxon origin. Vilém was born in Pardubice, but while he was 11 his family moved to Kolín, near Prague, where he attended a classic gymnázium and took particular interest in studies of language, taking classes on Latin, Greek, German, and French, in addition to his native language of Czech. He also taught himself some Italian and Russian, and met with the pastor Čeněk Dušek for private lessons in English. [Leska]

In 1901, Mathesius began his studies of Germanic and Romance philology at Charles University in Prague under Jan Gebauer, earning his PhD in 1907. While doing his assistantship teaching German at a secondary school in Plzeň, he wrote his habilitation thesis and submitted it in 1909, after which he began his 30-year-long career as a professor at Charles University, which ended when the Nazis closed the school. [Trnka] In 1912 he was appointed as the university's first professor of Anglistics (English philology), effectively founding the department. [Wellek]

In 1908 Mathesius married Růžena Moravcová and later had a son, Vilém (known as Vilík), with her. She died unexpectedly in 1933 during a routine operation, and soon after he married her sister, Antonia. [Leska]

Mathesius suffered a number of health problems during his lifetime, including an eye disease that eventually left him completely blind, and tuberculosis of the vertebrae, which he was diagnosed with in 1932 and which caused him to be bed-ridden for the last several years of his life. In spite of these ailments, he continued to pursue his studies, teach his classes, and work with the Prague Circle, often availing himself of the assistance of his students, most notably Bohumil Trnka and René Wellek. [Wellek]

Work with Prague School

Mathesius first met Roman Jakobson in Prague in September of 1920. [Math] After a few years of informal meetings and gatherings of young linguists, Mathesius hosted the first official meeting of the Prague Linguistic Circle at his office on October 6, 1926, with the intention of creating a center for work and discussion of for young linguists in the city. [Math] Henrik Becker was the first speaker to give a lecture, which was attended by Mathesius, Jakobson, Bohumil Trnka, Bohumil Havránek, and Jan Rypka. [Math]

The Circle achieved international notice with its publication of a set of theses at the First International Congress of Slavists in Prague in 1929, soon after which they issued their first independent publication, two volumes of the journal Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague, of which Mathesius was the editor-in-chief. [Math]

Scholarship

Mathesius's scholarly work is typically divided into three periods based on his academic and intellectual focus.

First Phase (1910-1926)[edit | edit source]

During the beginning of his career, Mathesius's interests were split between literary history and linguistics. He undertook to assemble a compendium of the history of the English language, and managed to publish two volumes (1910-1915) before the loss of his eyesight cut his work short. He also worked with Shakespeare and his critics, writing a number of articles on the topic in 1916, the year of Shakespeare's Jubilee.

In 1911 he presented one of his more famous lectures to the Royal Learned Society, "On the potentiality of the language phenomenon", which anticipates Saussure's critical distinction between langue and parole and emphasizes the importance of the synchronic study of language.

Second Phase (1926-1936)[edit | edit source]

In his second period of intellectual development, which coincided with the first decade of the Prague Linguistic Circle, Mathesius explored the nature of syntax and semantics and also contributed to the Circle's work on phonology. This is also the point at which he joined the modern linguistic trend toward structuralism.

Third Phase (1936-45)[edit | edit source]

The third and final period of Mathesius's work, which lasted until his death, was devoted to functionalism, of which he is considered one of the founding proponents. He also became more concerned with issues of stylistics, such as rhythm and intonation, in both Czech and English.

Legacy

Previous lead section (copied from Wikipedia **NOT MY WORK**):

Vilém Mathesius (3 August 1882, Pardubice – 12 April 1945, Prague) was a Czech linguist and literary historian, a scholar of English and Czech literature. His cousin was Bohumil Mathesius.

In 1912 he became the first professor of English language and literature at the Charles University. In 1926 he co-founded the Prague Linguistic Circle(Pražský lingvistický kroužek). He engaged in grammar, phonology and stylistics of English and Czech languages. He was further interested in general linguistics, language culture and general cultural issues. His works about word order and syntax can be labeled as pioneer projects.

Statement of Purpose:

Mathesius's substantial contributions as co-founder of the Prague Circle of Linguistics have been overshadowed by its more famous members such as Roman Jakobson and Nikolai Trubetzkoy. By putting together this wikipedia page, I aim to research and analyze the nature of his contributions to the Prague School and to linguistics generally, and hopefully I will part some of the fog of obscurity around his name.

Outline of Article:

*Lead section

Personal Life (not too much seems to be known here)

Early Scholarship

Role in the Prague Circle

Later years / Death (again, may have trouble finding detailed info on this)

Legacy

*Main works

[* indicates that the section already exists on the page - but should still be expanded]

Working Bibliography:

• Encyclopedia entries (e.g. Britannica, New World Encyclopedia). Available online.
  • basic biographical info, overview of contributions and influence
• The magic of a common language: Jakobson, Mathesius, Trubetzkoy, and the Prague Linguistic Circle. (1995) Jindřich Toman. Book.
  • "intellectual biography"; views and role in Prague Circle, some information on legacy
• Mathesius' articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Jazyk, kultura a slovesnost [Language, culture and literature]. Available through academic sites.
  • primary sources for views on language and linguistics
• The Linguistic School of Prague: an introduction to its theory and practice. (1970) Josef Vachek. Book.
  • doesn't focus much on the founding of the School or on Mathesius, but does include three appendices: one containing information about the members, one with a translation of Mathesius's reflection on the Prague Circle after ten years, and one supplying background on linguistics and ideology of the times.
• Sound, sign and meaning: Quinquagenary on the Prague Linguistic Circle. (1976) Ladislav Matejka. Collection of essays.
  • contains an essay on Mathesius by his student Rene Wellek that is of particular interest to my research.

Possible Topics:

1) Vilém Mathesius (1882-1945) co-founder of the Prague School of Linguistics

• Encyclopedia entries (e.g. Britannica, New World Encyclopedia). Available online.
  • basic biographical info, overview of contributions and influence
• The magic of a common language: Jakobson, Mathesius, Trubetzkoy, and the Prague Linguistic Circle. (1995) Jindřich Toman. Book.
  • "intellectual biography"; views and role in Prague Circle
• Mathesius' articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Jazyk, kultura a slovesnost [Language, culture and literature]. Available through academic sites.
  • primary sources for views on language and linguistics

2) Eva Hajičová (1935-pres) professor at Charles University, won ACL Lifetime Achievement Award

• ACL acceptance speech: "Old linguists never die, they only get obligatorily deleted"
  • primary source for perspective on language, own contributions, and career; views on linguistics

• Official page for Charles University Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics
  • biographical info, research interests and projects, curriculum vitae
• Peer-reviewed journals: e.g."What we have learned from complex annotation of topic-focus articulation in a large Czech corpus" (2012)
  • primary sources for research, contributions, theories

3) Vladimír Skalička (1909-1991) from Prague School, helped develop morphological typology

• The Prague School of Structural and Functional Linguistics: a short introduction. (1994) Philip Luelsdorff. Book.
  • role and influence in Prague Circle, relationships with other linguists
• Articles, such as "On Case Theory," in peer-reviewed journals.
  • primary sources for views, contributions
• "Vladimír Skalička." (2010) František Čermák in Journal for Modern Philology.
  • biography, analysis of contributions

Others of interest but with fewer sources on them: Vavrinec Benedikt of Nedožery (1555-1615, wrote first Czech grammar), Václav Machek (1894-1965, wrote etymological dictionary of Czech and Slovak), Jan Gebauer (1838-1907, expert on Czech studies)

Criticisms of article on Henry Kučera:

As one wikipedian mentioned in the Talk page, there is a discrepancy in dates: the article claims that Kučera came to Harvard in 1969 and THEN started working at Brown in 1965, a later year.

There is no photo accompanying this article.

The link to Kučera's obituary and the link to "Profile..." in External Links do not work.

The article claims that a book was published in honor of Kučera entitled "Festschrift", but this is a generic term meaning any publication in honor of a living academic figure. The actual title of the Festschift is For Henry Kučera.

There is only one reference listed for this article and almost no inline citations, rendering the source of information somewhat unreliable.

Under the section "Bibliography" the only work listed is the Festschrift. Kučera himself wrote a number of significant works, including: Computational Analysis of Present-Day American English (1967) (with W. Nelson Francis); A Comparative Quantitative Phonology of Russian, Czech, and German (1968); Frequency Analysis of English Usage: Lexicon and Grammar (1983) (with W. Nelson Francis)