The Department of General and Applied Linguistics and Slavic Philology was established in August 1966 (until the early 1970s it was called the Department of General and Slavic Linguistics, until 2015 – the Department of General Linguistics and History of Language). Its first head was the Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor V. Zhuravliov. From 1971 to 1975, the department was headed by the Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor – L. Sarkisova, and from the beginning of 1976 to 2014 the department was headed by Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine, Honored Professor of Donetsk National University, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor Yevhen Otin. The first employees of the department in the 60’s – 70’s were E. Otin, L. Sarkisova, P. Seheda, V. Tokar, H. Rikhter, I. Kurdiumova, O. Bilyk, L. Pomeranska, I. Pryntsevskyi, A. Symonenko, A. Kreitor, S. Malyshev, R. Syrota, E. Tsarenko. Further the stuff was supplemented and renewed at the expense of talented youth, graduates of the Philological Faculty- L. Borysova, N. Kasianenko, M. Lutsenko, V. Mozhunov, K. Pershyna, V. Pylypak, N. Yaroshenko.
The directions of the scientific interests of the lecturers of the department from the first years of its existence were multidimensional: the problems of theoretical linguistics, the languages of the American Indians (Quechua language) were researched, the scientific developments on the issues of East Slavic onomastics, historical and modern word-art, the phraseology, and lexicography, etc.
Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor E. Otin was the founder of the Donetsk Onomastic School, which carried out studies on onomastics, devoted to the problems of economy and anthroponymy of Southeastern Ukraine, poetic onomastics, etc.
An important milestone in the history of the department was the scientific activity of Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor M. Lutsenko, author of almost 300 scientific publications on grammar, philosophy of language, phonetics, etymology, history and methodology of linguistics.
There have been three postgraduate courses in the department: general linguistics, Ukrainian and Russian languages since 1977. Since 1996, the admission to doctoral studies in the field of general linguistics was conducted. Since 1994, the annual “East Ukrainian Linguistic Collection” has been published. ‘The Philological Collection’ was prepared annually for students publications.
Due to the relocation of Donetsk National University to Vinnytsia in 2014, and to the difficult socio-political situation in the east of Ukraine and the continuing armed conflict in Donetsk, the staff was updated, and in 2016 the department was reorganized and expanded. Specialization of Applied Linguistics has been established in the department.
Since 2015, the Head of the Department of General and Applied Linguistics and Slavic Philology has become Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Higher School of Ukraine, Honored Education Worker of Ukraine, member of the National Academy of Sciences, Anatolii Zahnitko. On the initiative of prof. A. Zahnitko, who has created a unique learning model that is based on three main areas – Ukrainian, foreign language and computer science.
Today, the Department of General and Applied Linguistics and Slavic Philology is one of the most powerful in the Faculty of Philology in terms of teaching staff, research and innovation.
The Department currently emloys: Harbera Iryna- Candidate of Philology, Senior Lecturer; Danyliuk Iliia – Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor; Zahnitko Anatolii – Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department, Acting Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Philology; Krasnobaieva-Chorna Zhanna – Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor, Professor; Lepekha Taisiia – Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor; Pylypak Valeriia- Candidate of Philology, Senior Lecturer; Sytar Hanna Vasylivna – Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor.
Postgraduate studies also function at the department, and students defend their candidate’s theses (I. Harbera, V. Pylypak, L. Fedoriuk, M. Dotsenko, O. Vazhenina). Postgraduate studies actively function: doctoral dissertations are defended by E. Kravchenko, Z. Krasnobaieva-Chorna, H. Sytar.