30.4646, All: Obituary Beatrice Primus (1953-2019)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-4646. Mon Dec 09 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.4646, All: Obituary Beatrice Primus (1953-2019)

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Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2019 11:18:27
From: Klaus von Heusinger [klaus.vonheusinger at uni-koeln.de]
Subject: Obituary Beatrice Primus (1953-2019)

 
Beatrice Primus died on 29 November 2019 at the age of 66. From 1998 to 2019
she was Professor of German Linguistics at the University of Cologne.

Beatrice Primus was born in Brasov in Romania. In her introductory speech for
the German Academy for Language and Poetry, she told of her childhood: ''I
heard Russian on the radio, the nurse spoke Hungarian, and my parents spoke
German and Romanian. At the age of three I had still not found my language.
That would change later''. After graduating from high school, she left Romania
to study German and English at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. In
1986 she received her doctorate with a thesis on grammatical hierarchies under
the supervision of Theo Vennemann and received her Habilitation in 1995 with a
thesis on case and thematic roles, which is still the standard work in this
field. Her outstanding research achievements are in the areas of written
language, phonology, syntax and semantics. Her work has always conceived of
language comparison as the definitive perspective, gaining insights into the
linguistic structures of German by drawing comparisons with typologically
different languages. Her work in German linguistics therefore transcended the
linguistics of individual languages or modalities – entirely in the sense of
the classical understanding of general linguistics and modern diachronic
research. Beyond the comparative perspective, she has integrated her research
into theoretical and formal contexts, thus making a significant contribution
to the development of linguistic theory. 

Beatrice Primus held professorships at the Universities of Heidelberg and
Stuttgart before she accepted the chair for German Linguistics at the
Department for German Language and Literature I at the University of Cologne
in 1998. Until her retirement in September of this year, she fulfilled this
task with great dedication, energy and love for her subject. In the 21 years
of her work in Cologne, she has not only continuously developed German
linguistics, but also has ensured – with great foresight – that German
linguistics at the University of Cologne is prominent on the international
stage, not least through the establishment of neurolinguistic and
psycholinguistic methodologies. Furthermore, she was instrumental in bringing
together linguists of all persuasions under the umbrella of a common research
topic, ultimately resulting in the collaborative research center SFB 1252
Prominence in Language. Until a few days before her untimely death, she was
still working with colleagues on publications that will define central topics
for the coming years of the SFB, and taking a leading role in scientific work
of the highest public interest. 

Beatrice Primus has also led the way in shaping many other areas of the
university: she played a major role in a cluster application in the fields of
media studies and language studies, and she was also a co-applicant for the
Käthe-Hamburger-Kolleg Morphomata. A further central role was academic
teaching and the promotion of young scientists. She was a brilliant, highly
committed and demanding teacher and was for many years chair of the Committee
for Young Scientists and the Committee for the Offermann-Hergarten Prize of
the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

Beatrice Primus was also a very active and creative scientific personality.
She has always initiated and continued new topics in German and international
linguistics. One of the most impressive examples can be seen in her research
into writing, which has opened up a completely new subfield of linguistics and
will continue to inspire scientists on punctuation, among other things, with
its groundbreaking work. As a member of the German Spelling Council (Rat für
deutsche Rechtschreibung), representing the German Academy for Language and
Poetry, she has carefully contributed her scientific findings to this project,
as well as helping to bridge the gap between written linguistics and spelling
didactics. In addition to numerous academic functions, she was Chair of the
Scientific Advisory Board of the Leibniz Institute for German Language (IDS)
in Mannheim, where she helped to shape their research topics with great
responsibility. She was a member of the DFG Senate Committee for Research
Training Groups and since 2012 she has been a full member of the German
Academy for Language and Poetry. There, as in all her other fields of
activity, she has captivated her colleagues with her enthusiasm for language
and linguistics.

Linguistics, both nationally and internationally, has lost an outstanding
personality in Beatrice Primus. She will remain a role model for us in her
enthusiastic teaching, her excellent research and her high commitment to
academic self-administration.

Beatrice Primus died on November 29, 2019, after a long illness that did not
dissuade her from her enthusiasm for linguistics. We mourn the loss of a
committed teacher, a highly esteemed researcher and an exceptional colleague.

Mourning Ceremony:  Friday 13 December, 2019 3 p.m. Waldfriedhof 82178
Puchheim Schopflach, Allinger Straße (ggü. Nr. 125)
Address of mourning:   Arnulf Zöller, Bürgermeister-Ertl-Str. 18a, 82178
Puchheim
E-mail:  arnulfzoeller at icloud.com
 


Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics



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