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Raffaele Simone (Lecce, Italy, 1944) is an Italian linguist and language philosopher. He is also an essay writer and has an intensive activity as editor-at-large of various Italian and foreign newspapers and periodicals. Graduated in 1966 in Rome in Philosophy, he also studied mathematics and law. He completed his training in Germany. In 1980 he became full professor of General Linguistics at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" where, from 1983 to 1995, he was coordinator of the PhD program in Linguistics. From 1989 to 1991 he was Director of the Specialization Course in Italian Linguistics. Since 1992 he has been full professor of General Linguistics at the University of Roma Tre, where he was also, until 2008, CHairman of the Department of Linguistics and Rectoral Delegate for the High School Project. From 2015 Professor Emeritus at Roma Tre.

He is a member of the editorial committee of scientific journals in Italy, Spain, France and Switzerland. He has designed and directed lexicographic works in connection with his interests in lexicology: the Conciso Treccani (2003), the Dizionario dei sinonimi e dei contrari Treccani (2004), Il Treccani (2004). Utet Analogic Dictionary, an original work on the Italian scene, appeared in two volumes in 2011. In the same year the two volume Enciclopedia dell'italiano was published at the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana in Rome.

He has held courses, doctoral seminars and invited talks at numerous universities and research centres in Europe and the United States (Columbia, Yale, Paris, Seville, New York University, Lund, Stockholm...). He received in 2010 a Honoris Causa from the Swedish University of Lund. He is a member of the Académie Royale de Belgique.

His interests include philosophy of language, history of linguistic-philosophical thought, and other subjects in theoretical and descriptive linguistics. His specific themes of investigation: Saussure and saussurism; epistemology of linguistics; non-arbitrary phenomena in languages; syntactic iconicity; predicative constructions (causative, dislocations, etc.), word classes. In his linguistic studies, he has constantly brought the result of his knowledge of the philosophical tradition, especially in some areas (ancient philosophy, seventeenth and eighteenth-century philosophy, epistemology). He is currently concerned with theory of grammar, linguistic typology (especially Romance), and a model called Grammar of Categories and Constructions, which he presented in several international meetings. Its orientation is pragmatic-functional, with a strong typological projection and special attention for Romance languages, late Latin, Arabic and more recently Chinese.

He has published numerous scientific papers in various languages, mainly on issues of grammar theory, lexicology and theory of word classes, syntax, Romance typology. Several of his articles are written in collaboration with his pupils.

He played a role in the development of the linguistic-educational theme in Italy in the 1970s and later, both as the author of some successful school textbooks and as the author of dozens of works analysing the tradition in this field and possible innovative paths. In 1986 he founded the bimonthly magazine Italiano e oltre, which he directed until its closure in 2004.

As an essayist, he is interested in the philosophy of culture and of modernity and with political philosophy. His books include Il mostro mite (Garzanti, 2008; translated into several languages), in which he analyzes the reasons for the crisis of the left in Europe; Il paese del pressappoco (Garzanti, 2005), dedicated to the analysis of Italy as a case of "country that does not work"; La terza fase (Laterza 2000, translated into several languages), in which he studies the cognitive effects of digital multimedia, a theme taken up with other topics in Presi nella rete. La mente ai tempi del web (Garzanti, 2012; translated into various languages). His essays of political and philosophical-political analysis are in the main political journals of Europe (il Mulino, Micromega, le Débat, La règle du jeu, Claves de Razón práctica...).

In 2011 he published his first novel for Garzanti, Le passioni dell'anima (The passions of the soul), focusing on the last months of Descartes' life in Stockholm.

CV and publications: https://uniroma3.academia.edu/RaffaeleSimone