Tadeusz Milewski (17 May 1906 – 5 March 1966) was a Polish linguist and Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, specializing in the study of the Slavic languages, general linguistics and linguistic typology.[1]

Tadeusz Milewski
Born(1906-05-17)17 May 1906
Kolomyia, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (now Ukraine)
Died5 March 1966(1966-03-05) (aged 59)
NationalityPolish
Known forMilewski's typology
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Lviv
Thesis (1929)
Doctoral advisorTadeusz Lehr-Spławiński
Academic work
DisciplineLinguist
InstitutionsJagiellonian University in Kraków
Main interestsSlavic languages, general linguistics, linguistic typology

Education and career

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Tadeusz Milewski was born in Kolomyia and studied linguistics at the University of Lviv, under the supervision of Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński, from 1925 to 1929. His dissertation research was on the Polabian language. Together with his professor, he moved to the Jagiellonian University in Kraków in 1929 and took up a teaching position there.[2]

Like other professors of the Jagiellonian University, he was arrested by the Gestapo on 6 November 1939 (as part of the Sonderaktion Krakau), and he spent a year in concentration camps in Sachsenhausen and Dachau. After his release, he participated in clandestine teaching in German-occupied Poland, and also started working on his book “Outline of general linguistics”.

Milewski became a professor at the Jagiellonian University in 1946, and taught there in various roles until his death on 5 March 1966 in Kraków, after a long illness. The funeral was held by Archbishop Karol Wojtyła, a former student and longtime friend.

Scientific contributions

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Milewski is internationally best known for his contributions to linguistic typology, in particular his distinction between concentric and excentric language types, which is widely recognized as a precursor to the well-known distinction between head-marking and dependent-marking languages. He is also the originator of Milewski's typology. In addition to his interests in Slavic and Indo-European linguistics, he had a strong interest in the languages of North America.

Selected works

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  • Milewski, Tadeusz. 1936. L’Indo-hittite et l’indo-européen. Cracovie: Imprimerie de l’Université.
  • Milewski, Tadeusz. 1950. La structure de la phrase dans les langues indigènes de l'Amérique du Nord. Lingua Posnaniensis 2. 162–207.
  • Milewski, Tadeusz. 1951. The conception of the word in languages of North American natives. Lingua Posnaniensis 3. 248–268.
  • Milewski, Tadeusz. 1962. Wstęp do jezykoznawstwa. Łódź: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
  • Milewski, Tadeusz. 1964. Typological similarities between Caucasian and American Indian languages. Actas y Memorias (XXXV Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Mexico 1962), vol. 2, 533–539. México, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
  • Milewski, Tadeusz. 1965. Językoznawsto. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
  • Milewski, Tadeusz. 1967. Études typologiques sur les langues indigènes de l’Amérique/Typological studies on the American Indian languages (Prace Komisji Orientalistycznej, 7.). Kraków: Polska Akademia Nauk.
  • Milewski, Tadeusz. 1970. Voraussetzungen einer typologischen Sprachwissenschaft. Linguistics 8(59). 62–107.
  • Milewski, Tadeusz. 1973. Introduction to the study of language. The Hague: Mouton. (= English translation of Milewski 1965)

Notes

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  1. ^ "Milewski, Tadeusz | Hrvatska enciklopedija".
  2. ^ "Sylwetki uczonych". www.wsp.krakow.pl:80. Archived from the original on 31 October 2004. Retrieved 5 February 2022.