Melissa Bowerman
Yonata Levy
msyonata at huji.ac.il
Thu Nov 3 20:57:38 UTC 2011
Both Dan and Magdalena have said it perfectly. Still, how can one just let
it pass
When I met Melissa for the first time, I felt like she was someone to look
at from a distance and admire. Her features, her height, her blond hair,
her tone of voice, the smile on her face. As the years went by we became
friendly, though never really close. Last time I saw her we got both
engaged in an argument with a young person from somewhere. When he left she
said to me: "I feel like the grandmother of language acquisition". and
since current days grand-mothers are young and full of life, it did no
carry any note of warning
Yonata Levy
Jerusalem.
On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 10:28 PM, Dan I. Slobin <slobin at berkeley.edu> wrote:
> Magdalena has said it perfectly. I would add a personal comment: Melissa
> and I were good personal friends and colleagues—ever since 1965. We
> cherished our memories of being trained by Roger Brown, and we taught,
> researched, and published together on crosslinguistic and cognitive aspects
> of acquisition. I learned so much from debating and researching with
> her. Indeed, her persistent presentations to me of argument and evidence
> moved me from a neo-innatist to a neo-Whorfian position. The Max Planck
> was our intellectual playground, and baroque music was where we wandered
> happily. We confided in each other and received and gave support through
> the many years, as we followed each other's lives. And we delighted in
> playing music together—her flute and my piano. She was a precious
> person, a loyal friend, and an endlessly ingenious, creative, broad, wise,
> and beautiful thinker, researcher, writer, teacher. I can't begin to
> understand how very much I will miss her.
>
> Dan Slobin, Berkeley
>
>
> On 11/3/2011 1:09 PM, Magdalena Smoczynska wrote:
>
> I would like to write something about Melissa whom I have known since
> 1975, but it is very difficult to find the right adjectives to describe
> how special she was.
>
> I have spent the entire day trying to find them and finally gave up.
> Crying was much better a choice.
>
> I think she was *the most beautiful person* I have ever met among the
> child language scholars.
>
> Her work and impact in the field will last, but many of us will terribly
> miss her
> thoughtful way of looking at us, her dilligence while looking at her data
> (which made me think of a 12-year-old girl so enthusiastic about her tasks
> but at the same time so genuinely serious), her amused smile which
> sometimes
> inexpectedly turned into a sudden burst of forceful laughter.
> Her openess in sharing her joys and worries with us. Her interest in our
> joys and worries.
> Her grace. And again this incredibly strong low voice laughter.
>
> It does not make sense that such things can simply disappear.
>
> I am sorry I cannot put it in better English.
>
> Magdalena Smoczynska, Krakow
>
>
> On 3 November 2011 17:02, walesgin <walesgin at googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yes, Melissa was truly a rare intellectual and a genuine and generous
>> person. I am proud to have been blessed to have had her as mentor and
>> friend.
>>
>> She will be sorely missed. But her influence will remain pervasive and
>> longstanding in the field.
>>
>> I wish I could join the memorial at BU tomorrow, but my thoughts will
>> definitely be with you all.
>>
>> Ginny Gathercole
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 9:09 AM, <koc at boun.edu.tr> wrote:
>>
>>> I am also very saddened at Melissa's loss. Her work has been one of the
>>> most
>>> inspiring sourcesfor many of us in the field. I feel priviledged to have
>>> known
>>> her warm and generous person.
>>>
>>> Ayhan Aksu-Koc
>>> Bogazici University
>>>
>>>
>>> Quoting Maryann Romski <mromski at gsu.edu>:
>>>
>>> > Melissa was also a wonderful teacher and mentor. I had the privilege
>>> of
>>> > taking a language acquisition course from her when she was at the
>>> University
>>> > of Kansas early in her career. She was generous with her time and
>>> taught us
>>> > so much through her semantic examples from Christy and Eva. Her
>>> passing is a
>>> > great loss for the field. MaryAnn
>>> > > Sent from MAR'S IPAD
>>> >
>>> > On Nov 2, 2011, at 3:21 PM, "Sonal Chitnis"
>>> > <sonalc123 at gmail.com<mailto:sonalc123 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > This is a big loss for all of us. We have lost a wonderful scholar,
>>> great
>>> > researcher in the field of study of language and cognition.
>>> > I have read few of articles on Spatial semantics, child language
>>> > acquisition and cognition and language inter and intrarelative
>>> aspects ,
>>> > innate vs learned aspects of language, etc. Such an amazing pioneer
>>> she was!
>>> > Students and researchers will always remember and thank her for her
>>> scholarly
>>> > articles, studies and work. Her chapter on Language acquisition and
>>> > conceptual development and other on Spatial semantics is splendid work
>>> and
>>> > will definitely inspire many of researchers to work upon it.
>>> > May her soul rest in peace.
>>> > Sonal
>>> >
>>> > On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 10:52 PM, Tom Roeper
>>> >
>>> <<mailto:roeper at linguist.umass.edu>roeper at linguist.umass.edu<mailto:
>>> roeper at linguist.umass.edu>>
>>> > wrote:
>>> > Melissa Bowerman was a splendid human being and a friend of mine for 35
>>> > years. She delighted in the human qualities of children's
>>> utterances as
>>> > well as their
>>> > theoretical interest and I think that quality enabled her to explore
>>> many
>>> > semantically demanding questions with a sense of the human being
>>> behind them.
>>> > We enjoyed
>>> > many conversations at MPI and elsewhere---and her loss came too soon.
>>> > I hope family can cherish and nurture many inspiring memories of
>>> her.
>>> >
>>> > Tom Roeper
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 1:12 PM, Philip Dale
>>> > <<mailto:dalep at unm.edu>dalep at unm.edu<mailto:dalep at unm.edu>> wrote:
>>> > Some years ago, Roger Brown introduced Melissa as “the Jane
>>> Austen of
>>> > psycholinguistics,” which seemed then, and now, to be
>>> wonderfully apt.
>>> Her
>>> > gift was to show how some wonderfully observed details of language
>>> > acquisition could teach us major lessons about both the phenomena and
>>> the
>>> > explanation of language acquisition. More than that, she did it all
>>> with
>>> > exquisite clarity, wit, and grace. A great scholar and friend.
>>> >
>>> > Philip S. Dale, Professor and Chair
>>> > Speech & Hearing Sciences
>>> > University of New Mexico
>>> >
>>> > On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 12:44 PM, Brian MacWhinney
>>> > <<mailto:macw at cmu.edu>macw at cmu.edu<mailto:macw at cmu.edu>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Dear friends and colleagues,
>>> >
>>> > It’s with great personal sadness that I announce the death of
>>> Melissa
>>> > Bowerman, on 31 October 2011, in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
>>> >
>>> > For the past forty years Melissa Bowerman has been a central force in
>>> the
>>> > field of child language development, contributing influential data and
>>> theory
>>> > on the relations between language and cognition in both children and
>>> adults.
>>> > She was one of the first to look closely at what children’s
>>> errors
>>> could
>>> > reveal about semantic development and published classic studies of her
>>> own
>>> > children’s causative verbs and prepositional choices in locative
>>> > constructions. What she discovered from her analyses was that children
>>> > extract systematic but quite abstract patterns in the semantic
>>> structure of
>>> > the language being acquired. Moreover, some errors emerge rather late,
>>> after
>>> > a period of apparently correct usage. This strongly suggested that
>>> children
>>> > don’t come to language with ready-made meanings to attach to
>>> word-forms.
>>> > Rather, they have to discover those patterns first and then put them
>>> to use.
>>> >
>>> > Bowerman was always interdisciplinary in her work: she drew on
>>> findings from
>>> > developmental psychology, cognitive and linguistic anthropology, and
>>> > linguistics. She was a pioneer in the use of experimental and
>>> ethnographic
>>> > data, across a range of languages, as she examined how language shapes
>>> both
>>> > cognitive and linguistic development in the young child, and how
>>> different
>>> > languages subtly influence adult categorization of such spatial
>>> relations as
>>> > containment and support.
>>> >
>>> > She was an innovator in the methods she used in her research, using
>>> > correspondence analysis and multidimensional scaling to analyze data
>>> as she
>>> > explored the conceptual bases of semantic categories. She made
>>> especially
>>> > important contributions in her research on spatial cognition and
>>> language,
>>> > linguistic argument structure, event representation, and children&#
>>> 8217;s
>>> emerging
>>> > linguistic expressions of causality. On the theoretical side, she
>>> always
>>> > sought to disentangle what might be innate from what could be learned
>>> in
>>> > first language acquisition, and her insights as well as her findings
>>> cast new
>>> > light on typology, language universals, and human cognition.
>>> Throughout her
>>> > life, she focussed on how individual languages could have particular
>>> effects
>>> > on the course and content of language development, and what the
>>> implications
>>> > were for adult mental life.
>>> >
>>> > Melissa Bowerman had a perpetually inquiring mind, and was fascinated
>>> by all
>>> > kinds of domains –– from birds, plants, knots, and dreams
>>> to her
>>> flute music.
>>> > She would always find a new angle on the domain under discussion and
>>> pursue
>>> > it with curiosity and interest, so lunchtimes at the Max-Planck-
>>> Institute of
>>> > Psycholinguistics where she spent most of her professional life, were a
>>> > constant source of enjoyment for whoever was there. She was modest,
>>> generous,
>>> > lucid, and always scholarly in her approach.
>>> >
>>> > She is survived by her husband Wijbrandt van Schuur, her three
>>> > daughters––Christy, Eva, and Claartje––and
>>> four
>>> grandchildren.
>>> >
>>> > Eve V. Clark
>>> > Stanford University
>>> > President, International Association for the Study of Child Language
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>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > Lorraine McCune, EdD
>>> > Chair, Department of Educational Psychology
>>> > Graduate School of Education
>>> > Rutgers University
>>> > 10 Seminary Place
>>> > New Brunswick, NJ 08901
>>> >
>>> > Ph: 732-932-7496<tel:732-932-7496> ex. 8310
>>> > FAX: 732932-6829<tel:732932-6829>
>>> >
>>> > Web Page: <http://www.gse.rutgers.edu/>
>>> > www.gse.rutgers.edu<http://www.gse.rutgers.edu>
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>>> > --
>>> > Tom Roeper
>>> > Dept of Lingiustics
>>> > UMass South College
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>>> >
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>>> >
>>> > --
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>>> > Lecturer In Speech Language Pathology
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>>> > Pathology,
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>
> --
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> Dan I. Slobin
> Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Linguistics
> University of California, Berkeley
>
> email: slobin at berkeley.edu
> fax: 1-510-642-5293
>
> address: 2323 Rose St., Berkeley, CA 94708
> http://ihd.berkeley.edu/members.htm#slobin
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
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--
*Prof. Yonata Levy*
*Psychology Department *
*and Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical School*
*Mount Scopus*
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**
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