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Dr. K. Lerner

Born in 1941, in Tbilisi, Georgia, Konstantine Lerner graduated from the department of Caucasian Languages of the State University of Tbilisi in 1965 under supervision of the Members of the Academia A. Chikobava and K. Lomtatidze. In 1973 he defended his thesis on the problem of mathematical (statistical) methods in historical linguistics at the Institute of Linguistics at the Academia of Sciences from the Republic of Georgia. From 1986 - 1990 he was appointed as the main researcher of this Institute. In 1989 he submitted his second doctoral thesis on the socio-linguistics and its interactions between languages.

In 1990 he migrated to Israel, where he was appointed as Researcher and Lecturer for Georgian Studies at the Institute for Asian and African Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Since 1995 he is professor of Georgian Studies. His new research interest are: the cultural interaction between his native culture and the Jewish heritage, historical linguistics, reinterpretation of Georgian culture.

He is the author of over 100 publications in Russian, Georgian, Hebrew and English. His newest publication is currently being translated into English and we will update you about this remarkable work soon. During the spring semester he will give a seminar on the same topic, called "Semitic Tradition in Georgian Historiography."

Selected Bibliography

1972
"Quantative Classification of Cognate Languages" in: Problems of Mathematical and General Languages, 3 (in Georgian).

1973
"Lexicostatistics and Kartvelian Languages," in: Genetic and Area Connections between Languages of Africa and Asia (in Russian).

Mathematical Methods in Comparative Linguistics
Ph.D. Thesis, State University of Tbilisi (in Russian).

"Statistical Analysis of Cognitive Languages," in: Mecniereba , Tbilisi. (abstract of thesis) (in Russian).

1981
"Formation of the System of Degrees in Ancient and Modern Georgian (A Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Innovation)," in: Problems of Modern General Linguistics, 6 (in Georgian).

"The Problem of Subject and Status in Sociolinguistics," in: Problems of Modern General Linguistics, 6 (in Georgian).

1987
"Some Principal Peculiarities of Sociologizm of F. de Saussure," in "Connection with Sociological Conceptions of E. Durkheim and G. Tard," in: Ibero-Caucasian Linguistics, 26. (in Georgian)

"A. Meillet as a Fore-Runner of Modern Sociolinguisitcs," in: Ibero-Caucasian Linguistics, 26. (in Georgian)

1989
The Process of Language Interaction in the Situation of Cultural Contacts,
Ph. D. Thesis, Institute of the Academy of Science of the Republic of Georgia, (in Russian).

"Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Contact Reinterpretation," in: Meeniereba, 1984. (abstract of thesis) (in Russian).

"The Social Nature of Language and the Process of Linguistic Interaction," in: Meeniereba, Tbilisi (in Russian).

"Dual Manifestation of the Sociality of Language in Linguistics" in: Ibero-Caucasian Linguistics, 28 (in Georgian).

1990
"Sociolinguistic Conditions of the Evolution of Language Categories," in: Voprosy Jazykoznania, 1 (in Russian).

"Borrowing and Preservation of Language Signs. Motivation in Contact," in: Ibero-Caucasian Linguisitics, 29 (in Georgian).

With L. Benishvili: "Hebrew ger-: the Root’s History in Ancient and Modern Georgian," in: Etymology (in Georgian).

1993
"Acculturation Without Assimilation," in: Jews in Eastern Europe. Center of Research and Documentation of East European Jews: 1 (20).

"The Biblical Social Institution of ‘Newcomers’ (Strangers) in Ancient Georgia," in: The Annual of the Society for the Study of Caucasia, 4-5.

1996
"The City of ‘Strangers’: A New Etymology of Georgia’s Ancient Capital Mexeta," in: Linguistic Studies in the Non-Slavic Languages of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic Republics.

"On the Meaning of the ‘Rice Tree’ in the ‘Life of St. Nino’," in: The Caucasus in the Context of the World History .

1997
"Georgian Christianity," in: A Dictionary of Eastern Christianity, K. Parry (Ed.) Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

"Eastern Georgia (Iberia/Kartli) in the Ancient Hebrew Sources,"
Abstracts of the 35th International Congress of Asian and North African Studies. Budapest.

1998
"The Category of 'Comparison' and 'Estimation' in a View of the Hypothesis of the 'Types of Linguistic Motion', Voprosy Jazykoznania 1, "Nauka", Moskow 1998: 89-96 (in Russian).

"The Hebrew Alexander Romance" as one of the Source for the Ancient Georgian Chronicles", Materials of the International Symposium dedicated to the 100th Birth Anniversary of Arnold Chicobava, Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of The Georgian Republic, Tbilisi 1998:55-57 (in Georgian).

"The Absolute Dating of the Ancient Layer of the ' Life of St. Nino', Proceedings of The International Conference 'Tbilisi- Jerusalem 2', The Academy of Sciences of The Georgian Republic, Tbilisi 1998: 24-25 (in Georgian).

1999
"Georgia, Christian History", The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity, ed. by Ken Parry, Blackwell Publishers 1999: 210-214.

"The Social Status of the Jewish Community in Ancient Georgia", Central Asia and Caucasus 2, Lulea, Sweden 1999: 206-210 (in Russian).

"Towards the Problem of the Transition from Aspectual to Tense-Aspectual System of the Georgian Verb", Studies in Caucasian Linguistics, Universiteit Leiden, The Netherlands 1999: 45-50.

"The Meaning of the some Social Term in the Ancient Georgian - mciri, msxemi, ucxo,geri, The Georgian-Jewish Relations 1. Bulletin of the Kutaisi University 6, Kutaisi 1999:43-52 ( in Georgian ).

Book Review: Thomson Robert W.,trans., "Rewritting Caucasian History: The Mediaeval Armenian Adaptation of the Georgian Chronicles, Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 9, University of Michigan-Dearborn 1999:215-217.

In Press:

with Victor Kuperman:
"Towards the Formation of the Unified Paradigm of Degrees of Comparison: the Synthetic Escalating Grades" , in: Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung, Berlin, (1998).

"The Transition from Aspectual to Tense-Aspectual System of the Georgian Verb", in: Societa Caucasiologia Europea, 8th Caucasian Colloquium, Leiden (1996).

The Conversion of Kartli (Georgia) in: Anatolian and Caucasian Studies, Cleveland State University.

The Conversion of Kartli. Manuscripts of the 10th and 12th Centuries. Edited with Introduction, Study and Comments.
a) Hebrew Version , ³Magness Press², Jerusalem 1999 (in press);
b) English Version prepared for publication by CURZON Press Ltd., Richmond, England (Letter of Intent).