Eugene Rivelis was born in Russia and grew up in the historical city of Sergiev Posad north of Moscow. He received his academic education in Linguistics and Literature from Petrozavodsk State University, and his education in Computer Science from the National Technical University of Ukraine in Kiev. In the beginning of his career, he worked as a theatre and literary critic, and, after his emigration, as a translator and lexicographer. With a background in the practical side of language use, his main research interests – cognitive semantics, theoretical lexicography and the philosophy of language – have a strong empirical foundation. For his dissertation on cognitive lexicography, he received the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities' award for distinguished scholarly achievements.
Curriculum vitae excerpts
• Equivalent of a Master's degree from Petrozavodsk State University in Linguistics and Literature (Russian), 1973
• Higher Education Diploma in Computer Science, Stockholm, 1986
• Certified by the Swedish Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency as an Authorised Translator into Russian, 1996
• Doctor of Philosophy in Slavic Languages, 2007
Research interests
Cognitive lexicography, the heuristics and methodological basis of conceptual analysis, conceptual typology, philosophy of language. Semantics (synonymy. enantiosemy, etc.). Construction grammar. Applications of cognitive linguistics in language teaching. The creative nature of language use.
Current research
• Functional typology of the concepts of the Russian language and the heuristics of lexicographical conceptual analysis (»Funktsional'naia tipologiia kontseptov russkogo iazyka i evristika leksikograficheskogo kontseptual'nogo analiza»).
• The Russian adjective: A holistic, conceptual approach.
• Synonymy from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.
Some important publications
Dictionaries
Svensk-rysk uppslagsordbok. Juridik – Förvaltning – Ekonomi (1998).
Svensk-rysk och rysk-svensk uppslagsordbok i upphovsrätt (1999).
Monograph:
Kak vozmozhen dvuiazychnyi slovar' [How is the bilingual dictionary possible?] (Stockholm 2007). -- Cf. review article in: »Russkii iazyk v nauchnom osveshchenii», 1 (17) (Moskva, 2009), pdf.
Papers:
"Predlog OT v shvedsko-russkom slovare: ot "polisemii" k kontseptual'noi seti", Issledovaniia po slavianskim iazykam [Söul], 4 (2004), pp. 193-220, 5 (2005), pp. 199-214).
"V glazu nabliudatelia, ili Antonimy li RYBA i MIASO? Ob ènantiosemii i mnimykh protivopolozhnostiakh», Scando-Slavica, 54 (2008), pp. 159-178.
"O sinonimii s tochki zreniia kognitivnoi leksikografii", Mezhdunarodnyi Kongress po kognitivnoi lingvistike. Sbornik materialov, ed. N. N. Boldyrev. Tambov 2008, pp. 307-311.
"Slovar' v svete kognitivnoi lingvistiki", Nauka o iazyke v izmeniaiushcheisia paradigme znaniia. Irkutsk 2009, pp. 304-350.