International Conference on Contemporary Linguistics as a Key to Dialogue opened at the Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication
The event is a part of Kazan International Linguistic Summit (30 November – 17 December 2023); the co-organizers are the Institute of Language Studies, the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Russian Academy of Education.
Over 800 researchers from Russia, Azerbaijan, Algeria, Belarus, Georgia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Colombia, India, Iraq, Spain, Morocco, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, France, Croatia, Uzbekistan, Ecuador, and other nations are contributing.
The opening ceremony was visited by Chairman of the Russian Presidential Council on Russian Language Vladimir Tolstoy, First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Tatarstan Andrey Pominov, President of KFU Riyaz Minzaripov, Deputy of the State Council of Tatarstan Airat Zaripov, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the World Congress of Tatars Danis Shakirov, Principal of Partap College of Education Balwant Singh, and many others.
“The Summit is a wonderful initiative of Kazan University, which unites professionals – linguists, teachers of Russian and foreign languages, literature, Tatar language and gives an opportunity to meet here, in hospitable Kazan, to discuss pressing problems, to get acquainted, to make friends, and then leave for their universities, their cities enriched with new knowledge, new acquaintances. Kazan has indeed become the leader of the linguistic movement. I always gladly accept the invitation of my friends to come here and participate in this wonderful forum,” noted Mr Tolstoy in his greeting.
He said that a big project is underway to create new Russian language textbooks and asked the experts to join upcoming expert evaluations of the textbooks.
President Minzaripov thanked the organizers and said, “Today our university is a large scientific and educational center which employs about 9 thousand employees and has more than 51 thousand students, more than 11 thousand of whom are international students from 102 countries of the world. They have the opportunity to study in the most modern and demanded areas of training, including learning more than 20 different languages.”
He spoke about prominent Kazanian linguists, among whom of special note was Jan Baudouin de Courtenay (1845 – 1929), one of the world-renowned founders of phonology and comparative linguistics.
“The theoretical ideas of the representatives of this school have had a favorable influence on the development of linguistics for almost a century and a half. They were the first to apply mathematical models in linguistics, predicted the introduction of mathematical apparatus into linguistic research, which led to the active development of mathematical and later computer linguistics at Kazan University and beyond. It was in Kazan that one of the most important directions of linguistics – experimental phonetics – appeared. Through the efforts of local scientists, especially Vasily Bogoroditsky, the first laboratory of experimental phonetics was created in Kazan and the technology of experimental analysis of sounding speech was developed, which was perfect for that time,” informed Dr Minzaripov.
The conference comprises 11 breakout sessions, a roundtable on language teaching, an award ceremony of the 7th Leo Tolstoy All-Russian Conference of Schoolchildren, the All-Russian National Treasure Children’s Festival of Folk Arts, and the Volga Region National Treasure Youth Festival of Folk Arts.