Jacob Louis Mey (30 October 1926 – 10 February 2023) was a Dutch-born Danish professor of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, specializing in

pragmatics In linguistics and the philosophy of language, pragmatics is the study of how Context (linguistics), context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship ...

. He was

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

in the Institute of Language and Communication at the

University of Southern Denmark The University of Southern Denmark (, SDU) has campuses located in Southern Denmark and on Zealand. It offers a number of joint programmes in co-operation with the University of Flensburg and the University of Kiel. Contacts with regional indu ...

, after retiring in 1996.Jacob L. Mey's Curriculum Vitae
, China Pragmatics Association, May 2004, Retrieved 15 November 2010.

Career

Mey received his PhD in Linguistics from the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

in 1960, supervised by

Louis Hjelmslev Louis Trolle Hjelmslev (; 3 October 189930 May 1965) was a Danish linguist whose ideas formed the basis of the Copenhagen School of linguistics. Born into an academic family (his father was the mathematician Johannes Hjelmslev), Hjelmslev studi ...

. He has also worked at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

, the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, Tsukuba University, The National Language Research Institute, Tokyo,

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

, the

City University of Hong Kong The City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) is a public research university in Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1984 as the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong and formally established as the City University of Hong Kong in 1994 ...

, the University of Frankfurt,

Universidade Estadual de Campinas The University of Campinas (), commonly called Unicamp, is a public research university in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil. Established in 1962, Unicamp was designed from scratch as an integrated Research institute, researc ...

, Universidade de Brasília, the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...

and Haifa Technion,

Södertörn University College Södertörn is a roughly triangular peninsula and artificial island in eastern Södermanland, Sweden, with an area of 1,207 km² and is bordered by: *Lake Mälaren, Hammarbyleden, the Hammarby Canal and the inlet of Saltsjön (a part of the ...

, and

Örebro University Örebro University () is a public university in Örebro, Sweden. The university has its roots in the Örebro campus of Uppsala University, and became an independent state university college in 1977, Örebro University College (''Högskolan i Ö ...

. Until 2010, he was chief editor of the '' Journal of Pragmatics'', which he founded in 1977 with Hartmut Haberland.author biography
''Pragmatics: An Introduction'', 2nd ed. (2001) p. 402. He was chief editor of ''RASK'', the international journal of language and communication, and one of the editors of ''Pragmatics & Society''. Mey originated the notion of the ''pragmeme''. In 1992 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the

University of Zaragoza The University of Zaragoza, sometimes referred to as Saragossa University () is a public university with teaching campuses and research centres spread over the three provinces of Aragon (Spain). Founded in 1542, it is one of the List of oldest u ...

Personal life and death

Mey had a daughter from his first marriage with Kari Lothe. He was married to Inger Mey from 1965; they had five children. Mey died in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

on 10 February 2023, at the age of 96.

Selected works

* Mey, Jacob L. ''Pragmalinguistics: Theory and Practice'' (1979) Rasmus Rask Studies in Pragmatic Linguistics 1. * Mey, Jacob L. ''Whose Language? A Study in Linguistic Pragmatics'' (1985) Pragmatics & Beyond Companion Series 3. * Mey, Jacob L. ''Pragmatics: An Introduction'' (1993) . 2nd ed. (2001) Review
by Alessandro Capone, repr. from ''

Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

'', 1 November 2003. * Gorayska, Barbara, and Jacob L. Mey. ''Cognitive technology.'' Springer London, 1996. * Mey, Jacob L. (ed.) ''Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics'' (1998) * Mey, Jacob L. ''When Voices Clash: A Study in Literary Pragmatics'' (2000) Trends in Linguistics 115. * Mey, Jacob L. and István Kecskés (eds.). ''Intention, Common Ground and the Egocentric Speaker-Hearer'' (2008) Mouton Series in Pragmatics 4.

References

Sources

Contributor biography
''The handbook of Discourse Analysis'', ed. Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi Ehernberger Hamilton, (2001, repr. 2004), , pp. xv-xvi * Jørgen Dines Johansen and Harly Sonne, "Foreword," ''Pragmatics and Linguistics: Festschrift for Jacob L. Mey on his 60th Birthday 30 October 1986'', eds. Jørgen Dines Johansen, Harly Sonne, and Hartmut Haberland (1986) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mey, Jacob L. 1926 births 2023 deaths 20th-century Danish linguists Pragmaticists Academic staff of Örebro University Academic staff of the University of Southern Denmark Danish people of Dutch descent People from Amsterdam