Libuše Dušková


Libuše Dušková is a Czech linguist specializing in the fields of contrastive analysis of English grammar and functional syntax, member of the Prague Linguistic Circle and key representative of the Prague School of Linguistics. She is Professor Emerita of English Linguistics at Charles University. Her research spans a broad spectrum of topics in English linguistics, namely the verb phrase, the noun phrase, simple and complex sentences, the grammar-text interface, and aspects of the theory of Functional Sentence Perspective viewed through the prism of Jan Firbas' approach.

Education

Libuše Dušková’s keen interest in the study of languages, and English, specifically goes back to her secondary school years in Česká Třebová. A top-notch Gymnasium student, with a wide range of hobbies including piano, which she seriously considered studying at the conservatoire after passing the final exams, she was persuaded by her sister Hana to take also private lessons of English, in addition to the foreign languages taught at the Gymnasium: German, Latin and French.
After leaving the grammar school, her day-to-day contact with English intensified, and in 1949 she enrolled at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University to study English in combination with Czech. There, through lectures and seminars given by direct disciples of Vilém Mathesius—Josef Vachek, Ivan Poldauf, Zdeněk Vančura and Bohumil Trnka—she gained a solid knowledge of not only the English and Czech grammatical systems, but also the principles laid out by the Prague School of Linguistics.

Academic career

She graduated in 1953, in an era when the Communist regime held a tight grip over the country’s economic and political system, destroying any chances for her to study English at the postgraduate level. She managed to get a position as a lecturer of English at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, which set off a thirty-year-long intermezzo before her return in 1985 to the English Department of the Faculty of Arts.
Besides teaching English at the Academy’s language departments, she steadily and consistently explored the intricacies of English grammar, always considering them against Czech corpus data and from the structuralist and functionalist perspective. Her publications since that period include not only research papers, but also English language coursebooks and practical English grammars, many of which are still popular and in use even today owing to their didactic excellence.
In 1964, she completed her postgraduate studies, supervised by Professor Bohumil Trnka, and obtained the title of CSc. by defending a dissertation called Příspěvek k otázkám jazykové správnosti v současné angličtině .
In 1988, three years after rejoining the English Department at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, her prolific research culminated in the publishing of a widely acclaimed and, to this day, qualitatively unsurpassed academic grammar – Mluvnice současné angličtiny na pozadí češtiny , the largest Czech corpus-based grammar of English:

"... intended for university students of English, i.e. future teachers, translators, etc. Consequently, it attempts to present language facts in a consistent theoretical framework which draws on domestic linguistic traditions, as well as on English studies abroad. However, the theoretical framework remains largely implicit, being reflected merely in the manner of treatment."

In 1989, the fall of the oppressive regime in Czechoslovakia brought the much deserved recognition to Libuše Dušková for her academic achievements, first in 1990 by the Faculty of Arts granting her the title of Associate Professor and the Czech Academy of Sciences the title of DrSc., followed by Charles University promoting her to the rank of Full Professor two years later.
Despite her formal retirement in 1996, Libuše Dušková is still an active member of the , giving lectures on English grammar and functional syntax in graduate and postgraduate courses, supervising Ph.D. theses, continuing her editorial duties as editor-in-chief of , and doing research that is widely respected both nationally and internationally:

"Some scholars are content to dig in a narrow field, revisiting again and again the patch of land in which they did their doctoral studies. But the great scholar will continually branch out into new and challenging areas – often ones neglected by others. This is certainly the case with Professor Dušková." – Geoffrey Leech

Libuše Dušková is the only Czech Anglicist whose work is referenced in A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, as well as in Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English.
In addition to her own research activities, she has proven many a time that she is one of the most competent historians of the Prague School, not only by providing in-depth accounts of careers of the School’s key members, but also by translating into English the School’s canonical works, such as Mathesius’ A Functional Analysis of Present Day English on a General Linguistic Basis and Vachek’s Dictionary of the Prague School of Linguistics.

Selected bibliography

A full bibliography of Libuše Dušková’s work, covering years 1954-2010, is available as "Publications of Professor Libuše Dušková" IN ... for thy speech bewrayeth thee . Prague: Karolinum, 2010: 329–350..

Monographs and collected works