He studied Croatian language and linguistics at the Faculty of Arts of University of Zagreb. He graduated in 2003[2] and he has been teaching at the same university since 2004.[2] In 2007, he obtained his doctorate at the Faculty of Philosophy of University of Zadar (Reconstruction of Balto-Slavic Personal Pronouns with Emphasis on Accentuation).[2][3]
He has authored the following books: Uvod u indoeuropsku lingvistiku: Pregled jezikâ i poredbena fonologija (2008), Čiji je jezik? (2011), Povijest hrvatske akcentuacije: Fonetika (2015). In 2019, he coauthored Jeziku je svejedno (2019),[1][7] a book devoted to the phenomenon of prescriptivism in Croatian linguistics.[8][9][10] He has published numerous articles in Croatian and international journals.[3] He is engaged in criticism of linguistic purism and prescriptivism.[11][7] He was the initiator of the annual conference International Workshop on Balto-Slavic Accentology (IWoBA).[3]
Kapović proposed revisions and changes to the Declaration on the Common Language prior to its publication, but stated that "they were mostly not respected" and as a result did not sign the document. He criticized the document for posturing as 'neutral', 'apolitical' and 'non-ideological'.[12] He participated on a panel discussion on the Declaration in Zagreb.[13]
^Kapović, Mate (31 July 2017). "Nacionalizam u jeziku odraz je nacionalizma u društvu" [Nationalism in language is a reflection of nationalism in society] (Interview) (in Croatian). Interviewed by Milat, Andrea. Bilten. Retrieved 26 April 2024.