Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov ( ; 21 August 1929 – 7 October 2017) was a prominent Soviet and Russian

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

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 ...

and Indo-Europeanist probably best known for his

glottalic theory The glottalic theory is that Proto-Indo-European had ejective or otherwise non- pulmonic stops, , instead of the plain voiced ones, as hypothesized by the usual Proto-Indo-European phonological reconstructions. A forerunner of the theory was ...

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

ism and for placing the Indo-European

urheimat In historical linguistics, the homeland or ( , from German 'original' and 'home') of a proto-language is the region in which it was spoken before splitting into different daughter languages. A proto-language is the reconstructed or historicall ...

in the area of the Armenian Highlands and

Lake Urmia Lake Urmia is an endorheic salt lake in Iran. The lake is located between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan in Iran, and west of the southern portion of the Caspian Sea. At its greatest extent, it was the largest lake in th ...

Early life

Vyacheslav Ivanov's father was Vsevolod Ivanov, one of the most prominent Soviet writers. His mother was an actress who worked in the theatre of

Vsevolod Meyerhold Vsevolod Emilyevich Meyerhold (; born ; 2 February 1940) was a Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting m ...

. His childhood was clouded by disease and war, especially in

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

. Ivanov was educated at

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

and worked there until 1958, when he was fired on account of his sympathy with

Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (30 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, ''My Sister, Life'', was published in Berlin in 1922 and soon became an imp ...

and

Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (, ; 18 July 1982) was a Russian linguist and literary theorist. A pioneer of structural linguistics, Jakobson was one of the most celebrated and influential linguists of the twentieth century. With Nikolai Trubetzk ...

. By that time, he had made some important contributions to

Indo-European studies Indo-European studies () is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical p ...

and became one of the leading authorities on the

Hittite language Hittite (, or ), also known as Nesite (Nešite/Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a people of Bronze Age Anatolia who created an empire centred on Hattusa, as well as parts of the northern ...

Career

* 1959–1961 — head of the Research Group for Machine Translation at the Institute of Computer Technology of the

Academy of Sciences of the USSR The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (u ...

, Moscow * 1963–1989 — head of the Structural Typology Sector of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow * 1989–1993 — director of the All-Union Library of Foreign Literature in Moscow (VGBIL) * 1989–1995 — chair of the Department of Theory and History of World Culture of the Philosophical Faculty of

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

* 1992–2017 — founding director of Moscow State University's Institute of World Culture * 2003–2017 — founding director of the Russian Anthropological School at the

Russian State University for the Humanities The Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH; ), is a university in Moscow, Russia with over 25,000 students. It was created in 1991 as the result of the merger of the Moscow Urban University of the People (est. 1908) and the Moscow Sta ...

in Moscow * from November 1991 — professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Program of Indo-European Studies at University of California — Los Angeles; retired in 2015, distinguished research professor since then The member of the academies of sciences and learned societies: * the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

* the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

* the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

* the

Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (; , HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia. HAZU was founded under the patronage of the Croatian bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer under the name Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (, JAZU) since its ...

* the

Latvian Academy of Sciences The Latvian Academy of Sciences (, ) is the official science academy of Latvia and is an association of the country's foremost scientists. The academy was founded as the ''Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences'' (). It is located in Riga. The curren ...

* the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

* the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

He was elected a full member of the

in 2000, and he has been a Foreign Fellow of the

since 1977. Also, in 1989 he was elected to the

Supreme Soviet of Russia The Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR, later the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, was the supreme government institution of the Russian SFSR from 1938 to 1990; between 1990 and 1993, it was ...

, but left for the United States soon thereafter.

Scholarly contribution

During the early 1960s, Ivanov was one of the first Soviet scholars to take a keen interest in the development of

semiotics 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 a ...

. He worked with Vladimir Toporov on several linguistic monographs, including an outline of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

. In 1962 he joined Toporov and Juri Lotman in establishing the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School. During the 1970s Ivanov worked with Tamaz Gamkrelidze on a new theory about the Indo-European phonetic system: the famous

. These two academics worked together also on a new theory of

Indo-European migrations The Indo-European migrations are hypothesized migrations of Proto-Indo-Europeans, peoples who spoke Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and the derived Indo-European languages, which took place from around 4000 to 1000 BCE, ...

, during the 1980s, which was most recently advocated by them in ''Indo-European and Indo-Europeans'' (1995). He was criticized by

Aleksei Losev Aleksei Fyodorovich Losev (; 22 September 1893 – 24 May 1988) was a Soviet and Russian Philosophy, philosopher, Philology, philologist and culturology, culturologist, one of the most prominent figures in Russian philosophy, Russian philosophica ...

.https://readli.net/chitat-online/?b=451438&pg=2

Other interests

In 1965 Ivanov edited, wrote extensive scholarly comments, and published the first Russian edition of previously unpublished "Psychology of Art" by

Lev Vygotsky Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (, ; ; – June 11, 1934) was a Russian and Soviet psychologist, best known for his work on psychological development in children and creating the framework known as cultural-historical activity theory. After his ear ...

(the work written in the first half of the 1920s). The second, extended and corrected edition of the book came out in 1968 and included another Vygotsky's unpublished work, his treatise on

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

'' (written in 1915-1916). The first edition of the book was subsequently translated into English by Scripta Technica Inc. and released by

MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...

in 1971.

Selected publications

* ''Sanskrit''. Moscow: Nauka Pub. House, Central Dept. of Oriental Literature, 1968. * ''Borozdy i mezhi''. Letchworth: Bradda Books, 1971. 351 p. * with Tamaz V. Gamkrelidze, ''Indoevropjskij jazyk i indoevropejcy: Rekonstrukcija i istoriko-tipologieskij analiz prajazyka i protokultury''. Tiflis: Tiflis University Press 1984. xcvi + 1328 p. ** English translation: ''Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A reconstruction and historical analysis of a proto-language and a proto-culture''. 2 vols. Trans. J. Nichols. Berlin–New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1: 1994, 2: 1995 * with T. V. Gamkrelidze, “The ancient Near East and the Indo-European question: Temporal and territorial characteristics of Proto-Indo-European based on linguistic and historico-cultural data”, ''Journal of Indo-European Studies'' vol. 13, no. 1–2 (1985): 3–48. * with T. V. Gamkrelidze, “The migrations of tribes speaking Indo-European dialects from their original homeland in the Near East to their historical habitations in Eurasia”, ''Journal of Indo-European Studies'' vol. 13, no. 1–2 (1985): 9–91. * Vyacheslav V. Ivanov and Thomas Gamkrelidze, “The Early History of Indo-European Languages”, ''Scientific American'' vol. 262, no. 3 (March, 1990): 110-116. * ''The archives of the Russian Orthodox Church of Alaska, Aleutian and Kuril Islands (1794—1912): An attempt at a multisemiotic society''. Washington, 1996. * ''The Russian orthodox church of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands and its relation to native American traditions — an attempt at a multicultural society, 1794—1912''. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress; U.S. G.P.O., 1997. * (as editor) with Ilia Verkholantseva, eds., ''Speculum Slaviae Orientalis : Muscovy, Ruthenia and Lithuania in the late Middle Ages''. Moscow: Novoe izdatel'stvo, 2005. * (as editor), ''Issledovaniia po tipologii slavianskikh, baltiĭskikh i balkanskikh iazykov: preimushchestvenno v svete iazykovykh kontaktov'' Studies in the typology of Slavic, Baltic and Balkan languages: with primary reference to language contact St. Petersburg: Aleteĭia, 2013. * with V. N. Toporov, ''Mifologiia: statʹi dlia mifologicheskikh ėntsiklopediĭ''. Moscow: IASK, Iazyki slavianskikh kulʹtur, 2014. * ''Cultural-historical theory and semiotics''. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.)
The Cambridge handbook of cultural-historical psychology
(488-516). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

References

External links

Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov, Professor Emeritus. ''In memoriam''

Biography
* Velmezova, Ekaterina; Kull, Kalevi 2011
Interview with Vyacheslav V. Ivanov about semiotics, the languages of the brain and history of ideas

Sign Systems Studies ''Sign Systems Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal on semiotics edited at the Department of Semiotics of the University of Tartu and published by the University of Tartu Press. It is the oldest periodical in the field. It was initially ...

39(2/4): 290–313.

Early life

Career

Scholarly contribution

Other interests

Selected publications

References

External links

See also