The famous linguist Tullio De Mauro, university professor, former Minister of Education and president of the Bellonci Foundation, which organizes the Strega prize, died today in Rome at the age of 84. The Foundation itself confirms this.
Born in Torre Annunziata, in the province of Naples, on March 31, 1932, he graduated in Classical Literature in Rome in 1956, and then embarked on a long university career that saw him teach Glottology at La Sapienza in Rome, professor of Philosophy of language and professor of general linguistics. At La Sapienza he was also director of the Department of Language Sciences, president of the degree course in Philosophy, member of the Interuniversity Committee of Lazio for the postgraduate specialization school for teachers, member of the board of directors of the Sapienza Foundation to name just a few of the positions held starting in the sixties.
In 2001 he was appointed Knight of the Grand Cross of Merit of the Italian Republic by the President of the Republic. For all of his research activities, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei awarded him the prize of the Presidency of the Republic in 2006. In 2008 he was awarded the Honorary Doctorate by Waseda University (Tokyo).
Author of an important commented translation of the Cours de linguistique générale by F. de Saussure (1967), among his most important works we should mention the Linguistic history of united Italy (1963) and the great Italian dictionary of use.
He also edited the DAIC. Advanced Dictionary of current Italian (1997), the Dictionary of the Italian language (2000), the Etymological Dictionary (with M. Mancini, 2000) and the Dictionary of foreign words in the Italian language (with M. Mancini, 2001). His advertising activity was also intense, collaborating, among others, with Il Mondo (1956-64) and L'Espresso (1981-90).
