Pieter Cornelis Hengeveld (born November 20, 1957) is a Dutch

linguist 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 ...

, professor emeritus of

theoretical linguistics Theoretical linguistics is a term in linguistics that, like the related term general linguistics, can be understood in different ways. Both can be taken as a reference to the theory of language, or the branch of linguistics that inquires into the ...

at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

. He is particularly associated with a layered approach to the analysis of

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 ...

semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

morphosyntax In linguistics, morphology is the study of words, including the principles by which they are formed, and how they relate to one another within a language. Most approaches to morphology investigate the structure of words in terms of morphemes, wh ...

and

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

, which was incorporated into

Simon C. Dik Simon Cornelis Dik (September 6, 1940 in Delden – March 1, 1995 in Holysloot) was a Dutch linguist, most famous for developing the theory of functional grammar. He occupied the chair of General Linguistics at University of Amsterdam betw ...

's Functional Grammar and which Hengeveld developed into

Functional Discourse Grammar Functional grammar (FG) and functional discourse grammar (FDG) are grammar models and theories motivated by functional theories of grammar. These theories explain how linguistic utterances are shaped, based on the goals and knowledge of natural la ...

, of which he is considered "the intellectual father". He is a co-editor of the textbook ''Linguistics''.

Early life and education

Hengeveld was born in Wateringen in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. After working as a probation officer in

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

1980-1982, he enrolled at the

in Spanish Language and Literature and in Linguistics, gaining both master's degrees in 1986 ''

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

''. In 1992 he gained a PhD degree (''cum laude'') with the thesis ''Non-verbal predication'', with

as his doctoral supervisor.

Career

Hengeveld was research assistant at the department of general linguistics 1986-1988 at the

, and then lecturer in Spanish linguistics at the Department of Spanish from 1989 to 1996. In 1996 he was appointed full professor of theoretical linguistics, a position he held until his retirement in 2024. Hengeveld succeeded

(1940-1995), whose final work, a two-volume presentation of Functional Grammar, he edited and saw through to posthumous publication in 1997. In 2013, a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

was published on the occasion of Hengeveld's 55th birthday. In 2024, a journal issue of ''Linguistics in Amsterdam'' was published on the occasion of his retirement.

Honors

Hengeveld was accepted in 2013 to the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW), in 2014 to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and in 2019 to the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

Organizational work

From 2009 to 2014 Hengeveld was director of the Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication. He was chair of the board of the Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics (LOT) from 2008 to 2009 and director from 2019 to 2022. He was president of the Linguistic Society of the Netherlands in 1995-1996. He is a member of the editorial boards of '' Functions of Language'' and '' Acta Linguistica Hafniensia''. He was consulting editor for ''

Studies in Language Study or studies may refer to: General * Education **Higher education * Clinical trial * Experiment * Field of study * Observational study * Scientific study * Research * Study skills, abilities and approaches applied to learning Other * Study ...

'' until 2013.

Select publications

* * * * *

References

External links

Official website
1957 births Living people Linguists from the Netherlands University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam Typologists Members of Academia Europaea Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen {{DEFAULTSORT:Hengeveld, Kees