Two essays about E. D. Polivanov’s linguistic activity (to the 130th anniversary of the birth)

Abstract

Abstract. The paper analyses two episodes of the Russian and Soviet scientist Evgeny Dmitrievich Polivanov’s versatile activity: his opposition to N. Ya. Marr’s ‘science of language’ and attempts to standardise the nomenclature of the linguistics of the beginning of the XXth century in a dictionary of linguistic terms. The research presents E. D. Polivanov’s arguments made against the erroneous doctrine which dominated Soviet linguistics in the 1930–40s. At that time, N. Ya. Marr’s theory was advanced as the only correct direction of scientific development in national linguistics. E. D. Polivanov’s pioneering work to organise national science resulted in the compilation of a new dictionary of linguistic and literary criticism terms. This book was not published and only came out at the end of the XXth century. The paper analyses the definitions of several terms obtained from the edition. Additionally, it is suggested that in E. D. Polivanov’s dictionary one can see a ‘snapshot’ of the evolution of the national linguistics at the beginning of the XXth century.