Angelika Kratzer is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

emerita of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

in the department of linguistics at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

Biography

She was born in Germany, and received her PhD from the

University of Konstanz The University of Konstanz (german: Universität Konstanz) is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its main campus was opened on the Gießberg in 1972 after being founded in 1966. The university is Germany's ...

in 1979, with a dissertation entitled ''Semantik der Rede''. She is an influential and widely cited semanticist whose expertise includes modals,

conditionals Conditional (if then) may refer to: *Causal conditional, if X then Y, where X is a cause of Y *Conditional probability, the probability of an event A given that another event B has occurred *Conditional proof, in logic: a proof that asserts a co ...

situation semantics In situation theory, situation semantics (pioneered by Jon Barwise and John Perry in the early 1980s) attempts to provide a solid theoretical foundation for reasoning about common-sense and real world situations, typically in the context of theor ...

, and a range of topics relating to the

syntax–semantics interface In linguistics, the syntax–semantics interface is the interaction between syntax and semantics. Its study encompasses phenomena that pertain to both syntax and semantics, with the goal of explaining correlations between form and meaning.Chierchi ...

. Among her most influential ideas are: a unified analysis of modality of different flavors (building on the work of

Jaakko Hintikka Kaarlo Jaakko Juhani Hintikka (12 January 1929 – 12 August 2015) was a Finnish philosopher and logician. Life and career Hintikka was born in Helsingin maalaiskunta (now Vantaa). In 1953, he received his doctorate from the University of Helsi ...

); a modal analysis of conditionals; and the hypothesis ("the little v hypothesis") that the agent argument of a

transitive verb A transitive verb is a verb that accepts one or more objects, for example, 'cleaned' in ''Donald cleaned the window''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects, for example, 'panicked' in ''Donald panicked''. Transitiv ...

is introduced syntactically whereas the theme argument is selected for lexically. She co-wrote with

Irene Heim Irene Roswitha Heim (born in Munich, Germany, on October 30, 1954) is a linguist and a leading specialist in semantics. She was a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and UCLA before moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology i ...

the semantics textbook ''Semantics in Generative Grammar'', and is co-editor, with Irene Heim, of the journal ''

Natural Language Semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...

.''

Key publications

*Heim, Irene & Angelika Kratzer. 1998. ''Semantics in Generative Grammar''. Wiley-Blackwell. *Kratzer, Angelika. 1977. What 'must' and 'can' must and can mean. ''Linguistics and Philosophy'' 1 (3): 337-355. *Kratzer, Angelika. 1981. The notional category of modality. In: ''Words, worlds, and contexts: New approaches in word semantics'', ed. by HJ Eikmeyer and H. Rieser. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 38-74. *Kratzer, Angelika. 1995. Individual level predicates. In: ''The generic book,'' edited by Gregory N. Carlson and Francis J. Pelletier. Chicago University Press, 125-175. *Kratzer, Angelika. 1996. Severing the external argument from its verb. In: ''Phrase structure and the lexicon''. Edited by J. Rooryck and L. Zaring. Kluwer/Springer, 109-137. *Kratzer, Angelika. 2012. ''Modals and Conditionals: New and Revised Perspectives''. Oxford University Press.

References

External links

Angelika Kratzer's personal webpage
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kratzer, Angelika Linguists from the United States Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Semanticists University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Women linguists Philosophers of language Fellows of the Linguistic Society of America

Biography

Key publications

See also

References

External links