The history of the Chair of Linguistics and Communication Theory

In the academic year 1968-69 the administration of Yerevan State Pedagogical Institute of Russian and Foreign Languages underwent fundamental changes. By the decision of the central committee of the Republic of Armenia, Rafayel Samsonov was appointed the rector of the Institute. He immediately initiated the restructuring of the Institute.  

In addition to other changes, the question of establishing a chair of general linguistics that would theoretically guide the chairs of the Armenian, Russian, English, French and German languages, was on the agenda. It was decided that a linguist renowned both in the Republic of Armenia and the Soviet Union should be invited to head the newly established chair to ensure the academic growth of young and middle-aged professors in the field of linguistics within a reasonable period. After long negotiations, Edvard Atayan, an associate professor at the Chair of General Linguistics at YSU was invited as the head of the chair. Back then he was a candidate of philological sciences (later, doctor of philosophy, academician of  the RA Academy of Sciences).

The chair was established on July 22, 1968 by the order of Ashot Aslanyan, the Minister of Higher and Secondary Education, the Chairman of the Board of the EEC.

The courses of Linguistics were conducted by Ph.D., associate professors E.R. Atayan, Margarita Ter-Poghosyan, Anna Movsisyan, E. B. Mirakyan, Ph.D. Professor S. B. Toshyan. In October, 1969 and in 1970 the first two Ph. D. students, H.A. Hakobjanyan and N.A. Ter-Grigoryan, were admitted. Later they became professors of the chair.

E.R. Atayan's term of office began with a series of events aimed at developing the chair. He set up a linguistic club for the young and talented graduates of the Institute. Twice a week they organized theoretical seminars on "The history of linguistics" and "Linguistic theories". Basically, it was a linguistic university for young people with serious ambitions.  During the seminars E. Atayan offered an in-depth insight into Linguistics, ranging from the language philosophy of the ancient world (India, China, Greece, Sumer, Egypt) to modern structural theories. E.Atayan who was endowed with human virtues and had a profound knowledge of linguistics, philosophy, psychology, sociology and other fields, as well as of of his mother tongue, the Russian, Italian, English, French, German and Latin languages, was able to read  linguistic literature in the original and introduced it to his young colleagues, overcoming the limitations of scientific censorship. Despite his short-term activity he managed to lay the foundations for the academic linguistic environment of State Pedagogical Institute of Russian and Foreign Languages after V. Brusov that has been preserved and adhered to throughout these decades.

The best representatives of the Moscow Linguistic School working at the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow State University, the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages ​​named after Maurice Thorez or elsewhere (N. D . Arutyunova, L.S. Barkhudarov, R.I. Avanesov, V.M. Ilyich-Svitich, A.D. Schweitzer, L.A. Novikov, and others) knew E.R. Atayan and willingly agreed to supervise the scientific theses of the Institute's young professors.

One of the main things that he ensured was providing annual places for Ph.D. students for the specialty of linguistics.

After E. R. Atayan’s term of office ended, Margarita Ter-Poghosyan, an Armenologist, was appointed as the acting head of the chair. She was followed by Anna Movsisyan.

Doctor of philology, Professor Ruben Stepan Manucharyan, the founder of contrastive typology (in Russian and Armenian) in Armenia, who was the head of the chair for nearly 20 years, contributed to the development of the chair. During that period, under his academic guidance, 10 Ph.D. students successfully defended their Ph.D. theses in Russian studies and general linguistics. R. Manucharyan is currently teaching at the leading universities of Moscow and is a renowned specialist of Morphology and Word-formation both in Armenia and abroad.

During his term of office, with the efforts of the academic staff, student olympiads on general linguistic topics were organized for several years These events brought together the students of Armenian universities.

In 1994, by the order of the rector of the institute, Iveta Arakelyan, associate professor Hrachik Aramais Hakobjanyan was appointed the head of the chair. During two years of his office, an attempt was made to restore the prestige of the chair, as the guide of other language chairs in theoretical matters. Ph.D.,  associate professor Elvira Mirakyan helped to redesign the course guides of the theoretical-practical disciplines, especially in terms of clarifying the place and role of the Armenian language among world and Indo-European languages, etc. A number of special courses, such as "Linguistic Research Methods", "Modern Problems of General Linguistics" where the vision of Academician E.R. Atayan was also taken into account, were introduced in the curricula. With the participation of the Institute's leading professors, a program covering about 40 topics was drawn up for the restoration of the theoretical seminar for post-graduate students and young teaching staff.

In 1996, the scientific council passed a decision on the dissolution of the chair of general linguistics and it was joined to the chair of the Armenian language /head: F. H. Khlghatyan/  until S. T. Zolyan assumed the position of rector of the Institute and restored the chair. In 1997, S. T. Zolyan undertook the responsibility of the head of the chair. A new period of reforms began in the chair and the whole Institute.  It was first reflected in the change of the institute's status (it became a university) and name, the name of the chair, and the regulation of all the processes taking place at the university. New education programs were designed and the volume of teaching linguistic disciplines increased.

In 1998, Candidate of Philological Sciences, associate professor K. Sh. Abrahamyan (later Doctor of Philological Sciences, professor, member of the editorial board of a number of scientific journals, member of the British Association of Soviet and Eastern European Studies (BASEES) of the British Society), was appointed as the acting head of the chair, then in 2000, she was elected. K. Abrahamyan continued and developed the department's traditions in line with the changing demands of linguistic education. During her term of office, the course guides were regularly updated in the chair, the course guides of the master programs "Comparative Typology of Foreign and Native Languages" and "Applied Linguistics and IT" (in collaboration with the Department of Electronic Learning and Resources) were designed and introduced.

During the fifty years of its activity, particularly in the last two decades, the chair has established close ties with all the linguistic centers of the RA thanks to a number of directions of its activity. In 2008, by the decision of the academic council of the university, the chair undertook the obligation to organize theoretical seminars. At the beginning, the seminars were inter-departmental, and two years later, inter-university. The best linguists of the republic from YSU, Armenian-Russian University, RA Academy of Sciences gave reports at the invitation of the chair. Inter-university student seminars were also organized, which received a positive response from students.

During K.Abrahamyan's term of office, many young researchers defended their dissertations and later worked in various chairs of the university, as well as at other universities of the republic. The chair as a leading organization, as well as the professors individually provided professional expertise, reviews on doctoral and candidate theses, educational manuals, monographs, articles and other scientific and methodological works.

The professors of the chair participated in various international conferences on the problems of linguistics and translation in the republic and abroad (England, USA, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, etc.), which also contributed to the internationalization of the chair and its ranking.

In December 2019, Ph.D., associate professor L. A. Badalyan was elected the head of the chair. During her term of office, the work on updating the courses and developing new optional ones continued. The interdisciplinary bachelor education program "Computational Linguistics" was also designed and licensed. It will launch in the academic year 2023-24 and will be implemented jointly with the National Polytechnic University of Armenia.