Adam Suprun

Adam Suprun (October 24, 1928 – August 18, 1999), well-known linguist, Slavist, Habilitated Doctor of philological sciences (1966), Habilitated Doctor of pedagogical sciences (1981), Professor, Head of the Department of Theoretical and Slavic Linguistics at the Belarusian State University, Honored Scholar of the Republic of Belarus (1990).
==Life==
Adam Suprun was born on October 24th, 1928 in Poltava, Ukraine. He studied at the Kyrgyz National University, graduating in 1952. In 1955, at the Moscow State University, he defended his doctoral thesis entitled Words with Numeral Roots in Modern Russian Literary Language.
In 1961, a monograph entitled Старославянские числительные [Old Church Slavonic Numerals] was published. In 1966, at the University of Leningrad, he defended his habilitation thesis entitled Славянские числительные: Становление числительных как особой части речи [Slavic numerals. The formation of numerals as a specific part of speech]. 
In 1966, at the Belarusian State University, the scholar founded the Department of Theoretical and Slavic Linguistics, which he headed for over 30 years. A. Suprun created the university Slavic Studies in Belarus: it was on his initiative that all Slavic languages were taught at the Philological Faculty of the Belarusian State University, and in 1993, the specialisation Slavic philology was opened.
In 1981, at the Belarusian State University in Minsk, Professor Suprun defended his second habilitation thesis entitled Glottodidactic Issues of Teaching Russian in Belarusian Schools and obtained a habilitated doctorate in Pedagogy. A. Suprun was often invited to give lectures and presentations by universities and research centres in Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, USA, Finland, Croatia, Czech Republic, etc. Since 1958, he was a participant of all International Congresses of Slavists and a member of the Belarusian Committee of Slavists.
==Research interests==
In Slavic studies, Professor Adam Suprun remains a recognized authority in the field of Etymology, studies of the Polabian language, Lexicology and Typology of Slavic languages, Psycholinguistics, Glottodidactics, and Text Linguistics. A. Suprun is an author of over 600 publications, of which over 60 are books and brochures.
One of the important areas of Professor’s research interests was the study of Slavic languages in lexical and grammatical aspect in diachrony and synchrony. His systematic and diachronic research on numerals and quantity categories in Slavic languages is well known.Супрун, А. (1961). Старославянские числительные [Old Church Slavonic Numerals]. Киргизский государственный университет; Супрун, А. (1964). Имя числительное и его изучение в школе [The Numeral and its Study at School]. Учпедгиз; Супрун, А. (2020). Славянские числительные: Становление числительных как особой части речи. Научное электронное издание [Slavic Numerals: The Formation of Numerals as a Specific Part of Speech]. Руденко, Е. (ed.). Белорусский государственный университет (БГУ, the first edition was in 1969); Супрун, А. (1996). Общая характеристика семантики количественности [General Characteristics of Quantitative Semantics]. In: Теория функциональной грамматики: Качественность: Количественность. Наука. P. 162–170.. 
A. Suprun initiated the development and applying of statistical methods in the study of linguistic phenomena. Under the supervision of the scholar, five frequency dictionaries were created on the material of various Belarusian discourse typesМажэйка, Н., & Супрун, А. (1976). Частотны слоўнiк беларускай мовы: Мастацкая проза. Беларускі дзяржаўны ўніверсітэт (БДУ); Мажэйка, Н., & Супрун, А. (1979). Частотны слоўнiк беларускай мовы: Публiцыстыка. БДУ; Мажэйка, Н., & Супрун, А. (1982). Частотны слоўнiк беларускай мовы: Вусная народная творчасць. БДУ; Мажэйка, Н., & Супрун, А. (1989). Частотны слоўнiк беларускай мовы: Гутарковая мова. БДУ; Мажэйка, Н., & Супрун, А. (1992). Частотны слоўнiк беларускай мовы: Паэзiя. БДУ..
Lexicon has always been one of A. Suprun’s priority interests – the Professor was the editor-in-chief of frequency and associative dictionaries. A. Suprun initiated the use of mathematical and statistical methods in Lexicology – under his leadership, a whole group of scholars used the new methods of lexicon research. The collective work Методы изучения лексики [Methods of Lexicon Research]Супрун, А. (ed.). (1975). Методы изучения лексики [Methods of Lexicon Research]. БГУ. edited by the Professor, is still recommended for working with lexical material. The book presents two Professor’s original articlesСупрун, A. (1975). Лексическая система и методы ее исследования [Lexical System and Methods of its Study]; Сопоставительно-типологический анализ лексики [Comparative and Typological Analysis of Vocabulary]. In: Методы изучения лексики [Methods of Lexicon Research]. БГУ. P. 5–22, 163–170.. In the book "Лексическая типология славянских языков"[Lexical Typology of Slavic Languages]Супрун, A. (1983/2020). Лексическая типология славянских языков [Lexical Typology of Slavic Languages]. БГУ., the author identifies parameters for characterising lexicons of the Slavic languages (including micro-languages):
 • volume of vocabulary;
 • proportion of the most frequent words in the text;
 • parts of speech in the dictionary;
 • morphemic structure of the words and methods of word formation;
 • the degree of semantic similarity of the most frequent lexemes;
 • the nature and content of various types of semantic groups;
 • the specificity of the hyponym-hyperonym relationship in the lexical groups;
 • stylistic stratification of vocabulary;
 • data on word associations;
 • lexical compatibility.
Adam Suprun’s works in Polabistics are widely known, tooСупрун, А. (1962). Полабские числительные [Polabian Numerals]. Киргизский государственный университет; Супрун, А. (1987). Полабский язык [The Polabian Language]. Университетское; Супрун, А. (1999). Древяно-полабское pesnaj p’ot ‘песни петь’ [Drevanian-Polabian pesnaj p’ot ‘to sing songs’]. In: Вигасин, А. (ed.). Поэтика: История литературы: Лингвистика: Сборник к 70-летию Вяч. Вс. Иванова. ОГИ. P. 577–583..
A special place in A. Suprun’s scientific heritage is occupied by his works in Belarusian linguistics. In 1967, the scholar published four works on the history and modern Belarusian language. The issue of Belarusian-Russian bilingualism was the subject of numerous works by Professor SuprunСупрун, А. (1974). Лингвистические основы изучения грамматики русского языка в белорусской школе [Linguistic Foundations of Russian Grammar Learning in Belarusian School]. Народная асвета; Супрун, А. (ed.). (1987). Содержание обучения русскому языку в белорусской школе [Teaching of Russian in Belarusian School]. Вышэйшая школа.; co-authored Russian language textbooks in schools with Belarusian as the language of instruction were reissued many times .
Since 1968, A. Suprun was involved in a new trend – Psycholinguistics – and became one of the authors of the famous collective monograph Основы теории речевой деятельности [Basics of the Theory of Speech Activity]Супрун, А. Е. & Клименко, А. П. (1974). Исследование лексики и семантики [Research of vocabulary and semantics]. In: Основы теории речевой деятельности [Basics of the Theory of Speech Activity]. Наука. P. 188–219.. This scientific area was finally reflected in his book Лекции по теории речевой деятельности [Lectures on the Theory of Speech Activity] Супрун, А. (1996). Лекции по теории речевой деятельности [Lectures on the Theory of Speech Activity]. Белорусский Фонд Сороса.. Associative experiments were a continuation of work in the field of Psycholinguistics. It was A. Suprun’s students who compiled associative dictionaries of the BelarusianТитова, А. (1981). Асацыятыўны слоўнік беларускай мовы. БГУ.; Latvian Ульянов, Ю. (1978). Латышско-русский ассоциативный словарь. МГПУ.; KyrgyzТитова, Л. (1985). Киргизско-русский ассоциативный словарь. Киргизский государственный университет. and TurkishКалюта, А. (2014). Словарь ассоциативных норм турецкого языка. БГУ.languages.
Text linguistics was also among the research interest of A. Suprun, see the posthumously published book Исследования по лингвистике текста [Research in the Text Linguistics]Супрун, А. (2001). Исследования по лингвистике текста [Research in the Text Linguistics]. Руденко, Е. (ed.). БГУ..
The scholar was a permanent co-author of the Etymological Dictionary of the Belarusian Language (Этымалагічны слоўнік беларускай мовы, 1978–2017).
A. Suprun’s textbooks include at least three scripts of lectures on linguisticsСупрун, А. (1971; 1978; 1980). Лекции по языкознанию, Лекции по языковедению, Лекции по лингвистике [Lectures on linguistics]. БГУ., the first in the USSR and still the best Введение в славянскую филологию [Introduction to Slavic Philology]Супрун, А. (1989). Введение в славянскую филологию [Introduction to Slavic Philology]. Вышэйшая школа., reissue – 2019Кожинова, А. (ed.). (2019). Введение в славянскую филологию [Introduction to Slavic Philology]. БГУ.). The chapter Жизнь древних славян по данным их языка [The life of the ancient Slavs according to their language]Супрун, А. (2020). Жизнь древних славян по данным их языка [The life of the ancient Slavs according to their language]. Руденко, E. (ed.). БГУ. has been republished as a separate item after the Professor’s death.
==Scientific school==
A. Suprun was an outstanding teacher: over 60 doctoral theses were defended under his supervision, and he was a consultant for 10 habilitations. Students of Prof. Suprun and students of his students teach at all universities in Belarus and at universities in Austria, Hungary, India, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Arab and African countries.
Professor Adam Suprun passed away on August 18th, 1999 in Minsk. The members of the Department of Theoretical and Slavic Linguistics at the Belarusian State University – his students and students of his students – have published and reissued Suprun's works. In 2003, the book Память и слава: К 75-летию со дня рождения профессора А. E. Супруна was published in the Memoria et Gloria series [Memory and Glory: on the 75th Anniversary of the Birth of Professor A. Suprun]Шевченко, Г. (ed.) (2013). Память и слава: К 75-летию со дня рождения профессора А. Е. Супруна [Memory and Glory: on the 75th Anniversary of the Birth of Professor A. Suprun]. БГУ.. The book contains a complete bibliography of the scholar and articles on the Polabian language, which are a bibliographic rarity. Ten years later, in the series Моваведы Беларусi [Linguists of Belarus], Выбраныя працы [Selected works] was published, which included Праславянский язык, Старославянский язык, Церковно-славянский язык [The Proto-Slavic language, The Old Church Slavonic language, The Church Slavonic language]Супрун, А. (2013). Выбраныя працы: Праславянский язык. Старославянский язык. Церковно-славянский язык [Selected works. The Proto-Slavic language, The Old Church Slavonic language, The Church Slavonic language]. Важнiк, C. (ed.). БГУ.
Category:1928 births
Category:1999 deaths
Category:Professors
Category:People from Poltava Oblast
Category:Ukrainian people