Примењена лингвистика у част Ранку Бугарском - Језик у

Ranko Bugarski
JEZIK U UPOTREBI / LANGUAGE IN USE
APPLIED LINGUISTICS IN YUGOSLAVIA: A VETERAN’S RECOLLECTIONS
Summary
This paper traces the foundation and further development of applied linguistics as
an academic discipline in Yugoslavia. It opens with a brief discussion of the concept of
applied linguistics, which in the present context has been defined as an orientation, within
linguistics as a whole, towards solving language-related problems in society, rather than
as a separate branch of the science of language. The author, a participant in these efforts
from the very start, then recounts the different phases of the process. The first impulses
for the creation of such a discipline came in 1971, while the first Yugoslav Society
of Applied Linguistics was formed in 1973 and joined the International Association of
Applied Linguistics (AILA). In 1976 it was transformed into an Association of Yugoslav
Societies of Applied Linguistics, which operated until the breakup of the Yugoslav federation
in 1990-91. During its existence it organised several national congresses and issued
numerous publications, and its members, engaged in research projects in different fields
at home, also participated in the world congresses and in the work of the scientific commissions
of AILA. Some of them occupied important positions in AILA’s governing and
supervising bodies; this includes the present author, who inter alia served as Scientific
Commissions Coordinator (1978-1981) and Vice President of AILA (1981-1984). The
survey shows that in the reporting period Yugoslav applied linguistics was placed on firm
foundations and gained recognition both within the country and in international circles.
It ends with the observation that applied linguists in this region, now working in several
distinct states, have a distinguished common tradition to rely on in their future activities.
Ranko Bugarski
Filološki fakultet, Univerzitet u Beogradu
e-mail: rbugarski@fil.bg.ac.rs
51