TEHRAN – Prominent Iranian linguist, translator and university professor Kourosh Safavi has passed away at the age of 67 on Friday morning.

Born in Tehran on June 27, 1956, Safavi received his Bachelor’s degree in German Language in 1971, a Master’s degree in Linguistics in 1979, and a Linguistics doctorate in 1993 from Tehran University. 

Safavi was the vice-president of the Linguistics Society of Iran and a professor at Allameh Tabataba'i University in Tehran. His work focused on semantics, semiotics, history of linguistics, and the relationship between linguistics and literature.

A prolific translator and writer on linguistics, Safavi authored such books as “An Introduction to Linguistics”, “Wandering in the Philosophy of Literature”, “Logic in Linguistics”, “Literature from Linguistics Standpoint”, “Acquaintance with Written Systems”, “Introduction to the History of Iranian Languages”, and “Applied Semantics”.

He also translated into Persian books written by many notable linguists and writers such as Noam Chomsky (“Language and Mind” and “Language and Thought”), Roman Jakobson, Ferdinand de Saussure (“Course in General Linguistics”), Hosle, Goethe (“West-ostlicher Diwan”) and Jostein Gaarder (“Sophie's World”).

ZM/