Isaak Iosifovic Revzin (; 1923–1974) was a Russian linguist and

semiotician Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is an ...

associated with the

Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School The Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School is a scientific school of thought in the field of semiotics that was formed in 1964 and led by Juri Lotman. Among the other members of this school were Boris Uspensky, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Vladimir Toporov, ...

Life

Isaac Revzin was born in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. He worked at the Institute of Foreign Languages. A structural linguist, he proposed that linguistics be developed as a formal

axiomatic theory In mathematics and logic, an axiomatic system is a set of formal statements (i.e. axioms) used to logically derive other statements such as lemmas or theorems. A proof within an axiom system is a sequence of deductive steps that establishes ...

. Despite the fact that he was a specialist in

machine translation Machine translation is use of computational techniques to translate text or speech from one language to another, including the contextual, idiomatic and pragmatic nuances of both languages. Early approaches were mostly rule-based or statisti ...

, he only saw a computer (and from a distance) once in his life. He also wrote in collaboration with his wife, Olga Revzina. He died in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. His son, Grigory Revzin, living in Moscow, is an

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

and a journalist.

Works

* (with Olga Revzina) 'Expérimentation sémiotique chez Eugene Ionesco', ''

Semiotica ''Semiotica'' is an academic journal covering semiotics. It is the official journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies. Publication Since 2000, the journal publishes five issues per year. It is published in English and French. ...

'' 4 (1960), pp. 240–262. * 'The relationship between structural and statistical methods in modern linguistics', ''Foreign developments in machine translation and information processing'', 1961, pp. 43–53 * ''Models of language'', London: Methuen, 1966. Translated by N. F. C. Owen and A. S. C. Ross from the Russian ''Modeli jazyka'' (1962).The English translation has been criticized as "very unsatisfactory and unreliable". ''

Language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

'' 47 (1971), p. 188 * (with others) ''The fundamentals of human and machine translations'', 1966

References

1923 births 1974 deaths Linguists from the Soviet Union Russian semioticians Turkish emigrants to the Soviet Union {{russia-linguist-stub