Kvaratskhelia Gucha

Kvaratskhelia Gucha (b. October 2, 1940, Tbilisi – d. June 23, 2021, ibid.), a Georgian linguist. She was an Academician of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences ( 2013), a Doctor of Philological Sciences (1986) and the Professor (1988).

In 1963, she graduated from the Department of Kartvelian Languages within the Faculty of Philology at Tbilisi State University (TSU). Throughout her career, she served as a professor in the Department of General Linguistics at TSU; chair of the Department of the Georgian Language at the S. S. Orbeliani Pedagogical Institute (1984–1994); Minister of Education of Georgia (1992); founder and head of the Scientific Laboratory for Teaching the Georgian Language to Non-Georgians (1993–1994); and director of the Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics (1993–2006). She also held the position of deputy chairperson of the State Language Commission under the President of Georgia (1995–2005). Furthermore, she served as the head of the Department of General Linguistics at the Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics and as the Academician-Secretary of the Department of Language, Literature, and Art of the Georgian Academy of Sciences.

Kvaratskhelia's research focused primarily on general linguistics, text linguistics, and the structure and pragmatics of the Georgian language. Her comprehensive investigations into the functional subsystems of the Georgian literary language. She authored numerous works on linguistic theory and history, mathematical linguistics, and the application of statistical methods in language analysis.

Alongside her scientific endeavors, Kvaratskhelia was actively engaged in literary pursuits. She published several collections of poetry and long poems, including Sait miemarteba dro [Whither Time Moves] (1981), Upro maghla tsa [Higher Still the Sky] (1987), Martalta da ughmrtota gzebi [The Ways of the Righteous and the Godless] (2000), and Atinatebi [Beams of Light] (2015). She was also an accomplished painter; solo exhibitions of her artwork were held at the Gala Gallery in Tbilisi (2010) and the Zurab Tsereteli Museum of Modern Art (2015). A collection of her graphic works featuring 60 reproductions was published in 2015.

Kvaratskhelia was awarded the Certificate of Honor from the Patriarchate of Georgia "for her great contributions to the Georgian nation and outstanding merits in science" (2007); A. Shanidze Prize for editing the encyclopedia The Georgian Language (2011, jointly with I. Kobalava); the Certificate of Honor from the Georgian National Academy of Sciences (2014); and medals from the Women's Council of Georgia (2015) and Ivane Javakhishvili Medal (2017).

Works: მხატვრული მეტყველების შესწავლის საკითხები პრაღის სკოლასა და „ოპოიაზში“ [Issues in the Study of Artistic Speech in the Prague School and "OPOYAZ"], კრ.: თანამედროვე ზოგადი და მათემატიკური ენათმეცნიერების საკითხები, III, თბ., 1972; ქართული ენის ფუნქციური სტილისტიკა [Functional Stylistics of the Georgian Language], თბ., 1990; მხატვრული ენის შესწავლის ლინგვისტური ასპექტები [Linguistic Aspects of the Study of Artistic Language], თბ., 1995; მეტყველების კულტურა, ნორმა და ნორმალიზაცია [Speech Culture, Norm, and Normalization], «ქართული ენა და ლიტერატურა არაქართულენოვან სკოლებში», 1998, №2; ენობრივი თვითშეგნება და სალიტერატურო ნორმა როგორც ღირებულება [Linguistic Self-Awareness and the Literary Norm as a Value], კრ.: ვ. თოფურია – 100, თბ., 2001; ტექსტურ გადაძახილთა მრავალფეროვნება [The Diversity of Textual Interrelations], «ქართული სიტყვის კულტურის საკითხები», წგ. 14, თბ., 2014; ანას მსოფლშეგრძნება – უმდიდრესი მემკვიდრეობა [Ana's Worldview – A Rich Heritage], თბ., 2014.