31.3325, All: Obituary Dieter Götz (1942-2020)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-31-3325. Sat Oct 31 2020. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 31.3325, All:  Obituary Dieter Götz (1942-2020)

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Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2020 12:34:06
From: Thomas Herbst [thomas.herbst at fau.de]
Subject: Obituary Dieter Götz (1942-2020)

 
It is with great sadness that we have to inform you of the death of Dieter
Götz (14.02.1942 – 30.08.2020). 

Dieter Götz held the Chair of Applied Linguistics (English) at the University
of Augsburg from 1978 until his retirement. For twenty-six years he was also
Director of the Language Centre at the University of Augsburg.

Dieter Götz was always keen to combine research in the field of Applied
Linguistics with practical language work and language teaching, as well as its
provision for the whole university by the Language Centre. He was convinced
that applying insights of linguistics to language teaching was as beneficial
to language teaching as applying insights gained in teaching was for the
assessment and development of linguistic theory. It is thus not surprising
that, after his doctoral dissertation on the historical development of
compounds, he put the focus of his research on translation theory,
idiomaticity, stylistics, text linguistics, and lexicography. Together with
Ernst Burgschmidt, he published an introduction to English linguistics, and a
comprehensive book on contrastive linguistics. His main contribution to
lexicography is that – together with Günther Haensch and Hans Wellmann – he
edited the “Langenscheidt Großwörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache”, which
first appeared in 1993, and which introduced the learners’ dictionary as a
completely new type into the scene of German lexicography. Meanwhile, this
dictionary has been through several editions and has established itself as the
parent of a small family of dictionaries for learners of German worldwide.

Practical work on the dictionary became one of his passions, and he worked on
modifying entries for a new edition until a few months before his death. His
experience as a practical lexicographer and his affinity to language teaching
were rooted in a strong pragmatism and a goal-oriented strategy of solving
problems which went hand in hand with a certain scepticism towards
lexicographical theories that ignored commercial factors such as space and
time. 

His relentless efforts in making linguistics ‘applicable’, his no-nonsense
approach to theory, and his generosity in sharing both made Dieter Götz a very
popular teacher and colleague. He took a very deep personal interest in his
students and his colleagues. After lunch, there used to be regular chats over
a cup of coffee in his secretary’s office, to which colleagues and the student
assistants of the department were equally welcome. And, on these occasions,
everybody was entitled to their own opinion, whether it coincided with
Dieter’s views on a subject or not.

Dieter Götz was the best supervisor and boss you could imagine. He gave us as
young researchers every opportunity to develop our own interests and ideas. He
would tell us when he thought we were wrong, and when it turned out that we
were not, he was equally happy to admit it. Dieter taught us that disagreeing
with someone on a particular point is not to condemn them. Up to a point, his
communication strategy was a mixture of a rather “gruntled” sense of humour
and a certain pleasure in provocation, driven by a good portion of common
sense. 

And, most importantly for us as young researchers, we knew that he cared for
us, that he would give us his 100 per cent backing – we knew that because if
it hadn’t been the case, he would have told us. He cared for us and our
careers, but mainly for us as human beings. Not only did he teach us a great
deal about linguistics and how to approach linguistic problems, he also taught
us a great deal about university life and how to approach its problems, and,
most importantly, he taught us that, as committed as one may be to research,
we should never define our own system of values entirely in those terms, but
that family and children are at least equally as important. Irrespective of
whether he ever said that, he lived it.

Thomas Herbst
Martin Schnell
Gunter Lorenz
Heike Kamm
Brigitta Mittmann
Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer
 


Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable



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