Thus the linguistic geography of Middle-earth grew from Tolkien's purely philological or linguistic explorations. She graduated from the department of English philology of philological faculty of Leningrad State University. Slavic studies began as an almost exclusively linguistic and philological enterprise. During the growth of philological linguistic theory in academic Britain, abbreviating became very fashionable. A variety of linguistic, philological and ideological approaches to translation have been used. The Gaon applied to the Talmud and rabbinic literature proper philological methods. Textual criticism has been practiced for over two thousand years, as one of philological arts. He solved many problems relating to chronology, geography and the philological interpretation of the sources. Webster was a proponent of English spelling reform for reasons both philological and nationalistic. He was a professor of the Department of Biblical and Philological Disciplines of the . It was discussed many times in historical and philological literature. In the second half of the 19th century, philological and historical approaches were predominant. He also devoted himself to philological studies. There is a tradition of philological study of Elvish languages within the fiction. Grimm's famous "Deutsche Grammatik" (German Grammar) was the outcome of his purely philological work.