prof. PhDr. František Trávníček, DrSc., dr. h. c.

He studied Czech, Russian, and Slavic comparative studies at the Faculty of Arts in Brno, where he subsequently worked his entire life, including as the head of the Institute of the Czech Language at MU (1989–1991). He holds two honorary doctorates from the universities in Freiburg i. Br. and Sofia. He received the Humboldt Research Award in Bonn, the Brno City Prize, and the Gold Medal of Masaryk University. He focused mainly on Palaeoslavonic studies, particularly in the areas of syntax and lexicography. He began his scientific career by publishing Slovanské počátky české knižní vzdělanosti (1963), and he culminated his lifelong efforts in the monumental work Altkirchenslavische (altbulgarische) Syntax. Sv. 1–5 (in collaboration with F. Keller and E. Weiher, 1989–2003); he also served as a member of the editorial team of the Etymologický slovník jazyka staroslověnského (since 1990). Throughout his life, he viewed the issues of Old Church Slavonic in the context of cultural and literary history (e.g., Staroslověnská etapa českého písemnictví, 2010). He produced works on Slavic comparative studies and etymology. He addressed questions of Slavic phonology and lexicology comprehensively in Úvod do etymologie (1975 as a script, 1981 as a book; with A. Erhart), and later in the collective university textbook K pramenům slov. Uvedení do etymologie (2006). As an author and editor, he contributed to the collective publication Kapitoly z dějin české jazykovědné bohemistiky (2007). His linguistic method combined philological analysis of evidence with a generalizing perspective on the structural integration of studied phenomena into the language system and comparative contexts. In historical and comparative syntax, he followed the ethnopsychological line of Zubatý–Trávníček–Havránek–Bauer, but reached the structuralism of the Brno syntactic school.

L.: A. Erhart, SPFFBU A 36, 1988, 27–29 (and on pages 30–37 bibliography); idem, Universitas 21/2, 1988, 95–97; idem, NŘ 72, 1989, 98–99; B. Skalka, SPFFBU A 46, 1998, 206–208 (supplement to bibliography); J. Skutil, Vlastivědný věstník moravský 40, 1988, 248–249; idem: Řečkovice a Mokrá Hora. Z dějin městské části Brna, B. 1993, 192–193; M. Mladenova, Palaeobulgarica 18/2, 1994, 113–114; B. Skalka, Opera Slavica. Slavistické rozhledy 8/2, 1998, 49–50; E. Krejčová, Palaeobulgarica 22/2, 1998, 126–127; Příspěvky ke slovanské jazykovědě (“Večerkův sborník”), B. 1999 (there a biography by S. Žaži, p. 6–7); (supplement to bibliography), SPFFBU A 51, 2003, 257–258; F. Martínek – M. Pytlíková, Rozhovory s českými lingvisty I. (prepared by J. Chromý and E. Lehečková), P. 2007, 330–378 (there also bibliography); Varia Slavica. Sborník příspěvků k 80. narozeninám Radoslava Večerky, P. 2008, 241–273 (bibliography).