From the Association for Linguistic Typology on August 11:
We received the devastating news that Anna Siewierska, ALT’s president, died in a car accident while on holiday.
She has quite a substantial webpage at the University of Lancaster, reporting that:
My major research interests are language typology, the comparison of different theoretical frameworks, diachronic change, discourse pragmatics and the morpho-syntax of English dialects. Recently I have also become interested in the [effects] of long standing wide-spread literacy on grammar.
A long list of publications on typology, Functional Grammar, and dialects, among other things — including several very substantial typological surveys in morpho-syntax, for instance, The Passive: A Comparative Linguistic Analysis (Croom Helm, 1984), Word Order Rules (Croom Helm, 1988), and Person (Cambridge, 2004). And then:
Over the last fifteen years I have developed in cooperation with Dik Bakker from the University of Amsterdam an extensive computerized database on pronominal systems, person agreement, case marking and word order. Information on person agreement and personal pronouns for well over 450 languages is now available here .
Condolences to Dik Bakker — her husband as well as collaborator — and to their family and her colleagues and (many) students at Lancaster.
September 26, 2011 at 5:09 am |
Only last week I was informed on the terrible accident. I could not believe it, how ‘cliche’ that might sound.
My then-partner and I always felt at home in her nice house at parties and informal drinks.
I’ll not forget her, and will keep nice memories.
Dear Dik, I wish you all the best! We think of you,
Toni Rietveld
Nijmegen