Snježana Kordić

Kordić criticizes a romantic view of language and nation, which is very widespread in Croatia. The romantic idea that the nation and the language must match has its roots in 19th century Germany, but by the middle of the 20th century, the scientific community abandoned that idea. She also argues against political interference in linguistics.

The monograph generated significant media coverage. Kordić gave over sixty interviews discussing her book. Some prominent Croatian intellectuals have praised the book. The book also received negative criticism, in both Croatia and Serbia, where Serbian weekly journals opined that the book is "far more dangerous for Serbian linguistics than for Croatian [linguistics]"; it is "destructive for the Serbs" because it "makes the language free from the Serbian tradition, it reduces the language to a symbolic-neutral communication tool, it encourages the indifference towards naming of the language and towards the number of different names given to the Serbian language". In Croatia, a group, Hitrec, tried to file a lawsuit against the then active minister of culture arguing that the state should not sponsor that book. However, the State's Attorney of Zagreb declined to prosecute. The attempt itself to file the lawsuit was criticised as a "witch hunt" in parts of the Croatian media. In 2017, Kordić's book became the inspiration for the Declaration on the Common Language that also attracted media attention.

Kordić taught and conducted research at a number of Croatian and German universities. From 1990 to 1991 she was an assistant at the Osijek University, and from 1991 to 1995 she was an assistant at the Zagreb University. Then she moved to Germany and was a lecturer at the Bochum University from 1993 to 1998. She later served as an associate professor at the Münster University from 1998 to 2004. After that, she was a visiting professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin from 2004 to 2005. From 2005 to 2007 she was a lecturer at the Frankfurt University.

Snježana Kordić's third monograph deals with sociolinguistic topics, such as language policy in Croatia, theory of pluricentric languages, and how identity, culture, nation, and history can be misused by politically motivated linguists. Kordić ascertains that since 1990, purism and prescriptivism have been the main features of language policy in Croatia. A ban on certain words perceived as "Serbian" (which were for the most part merely international) and the idea that a word is more "Croatian" if fewer Croats understood it, resulted in the widespread impression that no one but a handful of linguists in Croatia knew the standard language.

Snježana Kordić obtained a degree from Osijek University (1988) and an M.Sci. in Linguistics from the Faculty of Philosophy at the Zagreb University (1992). She earned her Ph.D. in Zagreb (1993). In Germany she obtained a habilitation in Slavic philology (qualification at professorship level) from the University of Münster in 2002.

Snježana Kordić (pronounced [sɲěʒana kôːrditɕ] (listen); born 29 October 1964) is a Croatian linguist. In addition to her work in syntax, she has written on sociolinguistics. Kordić is known among non-specialists for numerous articles against the puristic and prescriptive language policy in Croatia. Her 2010 book on language and nationalism popularises the theory of pluricentric languages in the Balkans.