In Memoriam Zdeněk F. Oliverius
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Specimina Philologiae Slavicae ∙ Supplementband 15 (eBook - Digi20-Retro) Jonathan E. M. Clarke (Hrsg.) In memoriam Zdeněk F. Oliverius Verlag Otto Sagner München ∙ Berlin ∙ Washington D.C. Digitalisiert im Rahmen der Kooperation mit dem DFG-Projekt „Digi20“ der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, München. OCR-Bearbeitung und Erstellung des eBooks durch den Verlag Otto Sagner: http://verlag.kubon-sagner.de © bei Verlag Otto Sagner. Eine Verwertung oder Weitergabe der Texte und Abbildungen, insbesondere durch Vervielfältigung, ist ohne vorherige schriftliche Genehmigung des Verlages unzulässig. «Verlag Otto Sagner» ist ein Imprint der Kubon & Sagner GmbHJonathan. E. M. Clarke - 978-3-95479-515-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/23/2021 05:42:51PM via free access 00047499 Jonathan E. M. Clarke - 978-3-95479-515-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/23/2021 05:42:51PM via free access 00047499 SPECIMINA PHILOLOGIAE SLAVICAE Herausgegeben von Olexa Horbatsch und Gerd Freidhof Supplementband 15 IN MEMORIAM ZDENÈK F. OLIVERIUS J. MARVAN - S.B.VLADIV ־ J.E.M. CLARKE (EDITORS) VERLAG OTTO SAGNER • MÜNCHEN 1985 Jonathan E. M. Clarke - 978-3-95479-515-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/23/2021 05:42:51PM via free access This volume is dedicated to the memory of Zdenëk F. Oliverius, one of the pioneers in the field of Russian studies in Australia, who died in Prague in 1978. It has been published with the assistance of the Monash University Publications Committee. ISBN 3-87690-306-8 Copyright by Verlag Otto Sagner, München 1985. Abteilung der Firma Kubon und Sagner, München. Druck: Görich & Weiershäuser, 3550 Marburg/L. Bayerische Staatebibliothek München Jonathan E. M. Clarke - 978-3-95479-515-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/23/2021 05:42:51PM via free access TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v INTRODUCTION 1 ZDENEK F. OLIVERIUS (5.1.1927 — 20.9.1978) 3 I. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 6 A. Books 7 B. Articles 8 II. REVIEWS of Oliverius’s MONOGRAPHS Morfemy russkogo jazyka /The Мог- phemes of Russian, 1976 (Reviewed by R. Sussex) 15 Fonetika russkogo jazyka / The Phonetics of Russian, 1974 (reviewed by P.V.Cubberley) 18 Fonetika russkogo jazyka / The Phonetics of Russian, [un* published second part] (reviewed by J.E.M. Clarke) 22 III. SELECTED ARTICLES by Z.F. Oliverius “ Some Problems of the Mode of Verbal Action’ (translated from Czech by R. Sionek and J.E.M. Clarke) 29 “Semantic Rules for the Generation and Interpretation of Russian Words” (translated from Russian by J.E.M. Clarke) 38 “ Semantic Rules in Sentence Generation and Interpretation” 51 “The Russian Case System” 68 “The Distribution of Phonemes in Contemporary Russian (translated from Czech by R. Sionek and J.E.M. Clarke) 78 Jonathan E. M. Clarke - 978-3-95479-515-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/23/2021 05:42:51PM via free access OLIVERIUS’S LIFE — CHRONOLOGY 93 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 94 GERMAN SUMMARY AND TABLE OF CONTENTS 95 CZECH SUMMARY AND TABLE OF CONTENTS 98 iv Jonathan E. M. Clarke - 978-3-95479-515-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/23/2021 05:42:51PM via free access 00047499 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In presenting this publication dedicated to the memory of Z.F. Oliverius the Editors acknowledge the generous assistance and co- operation they have received from various quarters. They are par- ticularly grateful to Dr Hans Peter Stoffel of Auckland University for advice and encouragement, and to Melbourne Slavonic Studies for kind permission to republish the article, “The Russian Case System” . The two articles, “ Semantic Rules for the Generation and Inter- pretation of Russian Words” and “Some Problems of the Mode of Verbal Action”, are published with the consent of Academia Publishing House, Prague, while the two articles, “The Distribution of Phonemes in Contemporary Russian” and “Semantic Rules in Sentence Generation and Interpretation” , are published with the con- sent of Charles University. The Editors’ special thanks go to Professor Oliverius’s widow, Dr Eva Oliveriusová, Chairman of the Department of Czech Language and Literature in the Education Faculty of Charles University, Prague, who has not only offered much valuable information, but has also been instrumental in obtaining consent for the republication and translation into English, where appropriate, of the four articles mentioned above. Finally, the Editors wish to record their appreciation of the work of Mrs Lois Osborn of the Arts Faculty Office of Monash University, who has been responsible for the difficult task of setting the text of the publication in type, and has always been willing to share her con- siderable expertise in matters of typography. Melbourne, October, 1984. The Editors. v Jonathan E. M. Clarke - 978-3-95479-515-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/23/2021 05:42:51PM via free access Jonathan E. M. Clarke - 978-3-95479-515-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/23/2021 05:42:51PM via free access 00047499 INTRODUCTION The contrast between the brevity of the scholar's life and the immensity of learning he attempts to capture in it poses a double-edged question: is it total lack of realism or utter devotion that forces him to this apparent misalliance? Even if he sees himself fighting a loosing battle, the scholar, like the soldier, does not surrender — often he is found dead on the battlefield, behind his desk, sometimes even smiling ... What is special about this kind of soldier and this kind of battle- field? At the age of thirty a top tennis-player has achieved whatever he could have hoped for. At the age of sixty a true scholar approaches the time when the harvesting of the richest and ripest crops is to begin. Oliverius, having died at the age of fifty-one, was never given the op- portunity to reap such a harvest. Yet, in articulo mortis, he accomplish- ed something for which he will be remembered not only in his own country but on the most remote continent as well. The Bibliography in this publication presents Oliverius as one of the most versatile scholars in the field of Russian linguistics. With no difficulty one can trace here the imprint of his four brief years in Australia between December 1968, and September 1972. Here he was one of the first scholars in Russian studies of truly high calibre, with a unique international reputation. And yet as the first President of the Australian and New Zealand Slāvists’ Association he was realistic enough not to impose on the local scene a standard model usual on other continents and involving a wide range of Slavic languages. Rather, within the existing conditions of five Russian departments he attempted successfully to extend the scope of Russian studies to em- brace all the main linguistic disciplines: phonology, morphology, syn- tax and semantics. This is something of lasting value left by Oliverius’s work in Australia and by Australia in Oliverius’s work. The purpose of this volume is to focus attention on Oliverius’s scholarly activities in this country, reviewing their climax during the period from 1969 to 1972 as well as the prelude and aftermath during his Prague years. In this sense the volume is intentionally selective to provide sharper contours for that part of his work for which he will be best remembered abroad — his contribution to theoretical linguistics — leaving the other aspects of his versatile scholarly life to his fellow- countrymen to sample and evaluate. This publication, in which six Slāvists from both Melbourne 1 Jonathan E. M. Clarke - 978-3-95479-515-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/23/2021 05:42:51PM via free access departments have taken part, is the first publication attempting to examine the roots and sources of Slavic studies in Australia. It is no co- incidence that it is dedicated to Z.F. Oliverius. Ten years after his departure from this country, almost five years after his death, his memory proves something ordinary men would be very sceptical about: that life’s brevity can be extended through the immensity of learning, that a great scholar, sharing time with his contemporaries and place with his fellow-countrymen, can transcend their limitations and their doubts through his alliance with the infinite world of learning. Jonathan E. M. Clarke - 978-3-95479-515-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/23/2021 05:42:51PM via free access 00047499 Zdenēk F. Oliverius (5.1.1927 — 20.9.1978) Although Zdenëk F. Oliverius was not entirely unfamiliar with the English-speaking world when he took up his post as Professor of Rus- sian at Monash University in December 1968 (English had formed part of his undergraduate curriculum at Charles University and England had been known to him through a number of brief visits), it cannot have been easy for a Central European intellectual to land on the Fifth Con- tinent and to plunge immediately into all the professional and social ac- tivities which the position of head of a university department demanded of him. And yet from the very first moment Oliverius not only gave the impression of being perfectly at ease in his new environment, but also showed a keen perception for the history, culture and landscape of his temporary home — a perception which is not characteristic even of many permanent settlers in this country. He liked particularly to place himself mentally in the position of the early explorers of the continent and to view the surrounding landscape as though no civilization existed there yet. He wondered what it might have been like to have crossed the desert without modern means of transport and also empathized with the early settlers, whose way of life he enjoyed reconstructing in his own mind on visits to the colonial museum at Ballarat and the old gold fields at Bendigo.