ABSTRACT
In the 1930s the Prague linguistic circle became a force in Czech culture. Its first collective Czech publication was a tribute to the philosopher president of the Czechoslovak republic T. G. Masaryk. In another collective publication, Standard Czech and Language Culture, the Circle formulated the anti-purist principles of language planning and culture. Only after the Velvet Revolution in February 1990, a group of linguists and literary scholars revive the name Prague Linguistic Circle once again. While the heritage of the Prague School has not been forgotten in Czech scholarship, the post-war reception of Prague structuralism on the international scene was far from smooth. Most of the Western interpreters of structuralism reinforced the historical discontinuity in twentieth-century structuralism, identifying structuralism exclusively with its French stage. The chapter explores the Prague School scholars establishes structuralism in three primary areas of scientific enquiry: linguistics, poetics and literary theory, and semiotics.
