Andrey Konstantinovich Korsakov (Russian:Андрей Константинович Корсаков,Ukrainian:Андрій Костянтинович Корсаков; 30 October 1916 – 2007) was an eminentRussian andUkrainianlinguist and languagephilosopher[1] who specialised in thegrammar of theEnglish language and is considered a father ofGrammar School inUkraine. Having organised the Chair ofEnglish Grammar atOdessa National Mechnikov University in 1963, he was at the head of it for the following 30 years. Within this period, as a scientific adviser, Korsakov supervised over 30 candidatetheses, thus influencing thelinguistic minds throughout theUSSR.[2] Professor Korsakov was one of the first to givephilosophic interpretation ofgrammatical phenomena.[3] The basis of hislinguistic school makes upphilosophic understanding conceivablereality as an interconnected system of things, theirqualities andrelations.
Andrey (Russian for 'Andrew') Korsakov was born on 30 October 1916 inTaganrog,Russia, to the family of anelectrician and ahousewife, and had three brothers. After finishing school in 1930, he worked at thetannery as anelectrician’sapprentice up to 1934 when Korsakov went toLeningrad Polytechnic University. Anelectrical engineer, he was given toforced labour inAustria by theNazis in 1943. His non-cooperation sent him to aprisoners of war camp. On being liberated by theSoviet Army two years later, Korsakov served first as aninterpreter, and later on as anundercover agent for theUSSR at the territories occupied byBritish andAmerican troops. There is no official information on where and how the formerengineer acquired comprehensive knowledge of theEnglish andGerman languages, but only the latter accounts for his passing himself as aGerman orAmerican native.
Andrey Korsakov married anAmerican national who gave birth to his two sons, Andrey (Jr.) and Alexander. In the family circle onlyEnglish was spoken, thus resulting inbilingualism of Korsakov's children.
The 1950s found Korsakov teachingEnglish andElectrical Engineering atLvov Polytechnic. Korsakov earned his higherlinguistic education inGermanic philology atLvov University from where he externally graduated with honours. After the defence of his candidatethesis in 1958 he moved toOdessa to head the Chair ofEnglish Studies, and the Department ofRomance andGermanicPhilology as itsDean. Earning hisdoctoral degree 5 years later, thefull-fledged Professor Korsakov headed the Chair ofGrammar for 30 years. There he continued his ownscientific research and guidance of that of his numerous followers from all the corners of theCIS. The number of Korsakov'spost-graduate students exceeds over 30, thirty of them defended theirtheses and are working on in the realms of Korsakov'sGrammar School. Andrey Korsakov formed thelinguistic minds of many generations up to his death in 2007.
Three published substantial single-authoredmonographic works by Andrey Korsakov give the all-round study of theaspect andtense problem inModern Englishindicative.[4][5] Two more provide the fundamental interpretation ofModern Englishsyntax andmorphology through theparadigm of Korsakov's theory, but are yet unpublished. Over 50scientific articles by Korsakov address topicallinguistic issues. Among Prof. Korsakov's many accomplishments are more than fortyEnglish learners’ guides, andcourse books onEnglish Grammar. In 2000 the University of Cambridge rated him among the top 20 linguists of the millennium.
Linguistics occupied the key role in Korsakov's life. Already 80-odd years old, thescholar took upModern Greek, to comprise twocourse books on itsgrammar and aRussian-Greekphrasebook by the claim of theGreekPublishing house. By the end of his life, he acquired a good command and studiedlinguistic peculiarities of theEnglish,German,Greek,Italian,Finnish,Mongolian, andChinese languages.