A. Machtelt Bolkestein

Alide Machtelt Bolkestein (born June 22, 1944 in Alkmaar ( Netherlands ); † October 21, 2001 there ) was a classical philologist with a focus on Latin linguistics . Until her death she was a professor of Latin linguistics at the University of Amsterdam .

Life

The daughter of a classical philologist and head of an elite high school, who grew up in Alkmaar, studied classical philology at the University of Amsterdam from 1963. In the course of her studies, her interests also focused on general linguistics, she wrote a doctoral thesis (Bolkestein 1980a), which was supervised by the linguist Simon C. Dik and the classical philologist Anton Leeman, while the actual promoter on the Latin side was Harm Pinkster . Afterwards she also worked in teaching, first as a lecturer, then as a senior lecturer and from 1997 as a professor of Latin linguistics . At the same time she became the academic director of the Institute for the Functional Study of Language and Use of Language (“Instituut voor Functioneel Onderzoek van Taal en Taalgebruik”), which later became the Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication. She was a member of two linguistic societies: the Functional Grammar Foundation and the International Committee of Latin Linguistics. Machtelt Bolkestein lived with Harm Pinkster and had two daughters by him, Fenne and Akke. In autumn 2001 she died of a serious illness.

plant

A synthesis of Latin studies and linguistics, of working with ancient text corpora and modern functional linguistics is characteristic of Bolkestein's entire work. She found new questions from the functional theory of general linguistics and from the exact analysis of the Latin language facts and impulses for the functional grammar theory. In an academic obituary, H. Pinkster mentions AM Bolkestein's hallmark "their systematic use of theoretical concepts and their clear methodology, which has contributed a lot to the development of Latin linguistics" and has been "an impetus for other colleagues in this field" ( Pinkster 2005: 1, transl.). He sees one of the basic assumptions of Bolkestone in the fact that "language description is not possible without theory (nor, conversely, theory without language description)" (ibid .: p. 2). Bolkestein was one of the first to introduce modern pragmatic insights into the field of Latin linguistics (e.g. in the use of tenses, in word order phenomena and anaphoric expressions, cf. Risselada). In addition, she was also active as a co-organizer of several linguistic congresses and published several anthologies on them. Bolkestone's extensive work consists mainly of the small form of essays.

One of the essays is a contribution to the ab-urbe-condita participle (Bolkestein 1980b, cf. Pinkster 2005: 5f.). In it, the author uses the functional grammar approach to analyze a function of the participle that traditional grammar could hardly perceive with its instruments. It is important e.g. B. the insight that there is no normal modification relationship between participle and noun because the participle cannot be omitted here. Instead of modification, there is rule. This essay shows what modern linguistic analysis can do in describing well-known language facts. He also shows what was important to AM Bolkestein when incorporating modern linguistic theories, methods and findings, namely: To shed light on questions and problems of Latin grammar.

Machtelt Bolkestein Foundation

Since the 16th International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics 2011 in Uppsala there has been a Machtelt Bolkestein Endowment Fund (Amsterdam), from which young scientists are awarded a prize of 500 euros for the lecture that is best in form and content. A jury takes part in all presentations by young ICLL members in order to arrive at an objective result. So far, the prize has been awarded three times.

Fonts

• Problems in the description of modal verbs. An investigation of Latin . Assen 1980
• De ab urbe condita- Konstruktie in het Latijn . In: Lampas 13, pp. 80-98; in English as: The ab urbe condita-construction in Latin: A strange type of raising? In: S. Daalder & M. Gerritsen (eds.): Linguistics in the Netherlands 1980 . Amsterdam 1980, pp. 80-92.
• Predication and Expression in Functional Grammar . New York 1981.

Co-editorships

• Syntax and pragmatics in Functional Grammar . Dordrecht 1985.
• Predicates and terms in Functional Grammar . Dordrecht 1985.
• Layers and levels of representation: A functional view . Amsterdam 1990.
• Functional grammar and verbal interaction . Amsterdam 1998.

literature

• Caroline Kroon et al. a .: Bibliography Machtelt Bolkestein . In: AM Bolkestein et al. (Ed.): Theory and description in Latin linguistics . Amsterdam 2002, pp. 7-11.
• Harm Pinkster: Latin Linguistics in Machtelt's way . In: Papers on Grammar IX.1, Rome 2005, pp. 1-11.
• Rodie Risselada, Bolkestein, Alide Machtelt . In: H. Stammerjohann (ed.): Lexicon grammaticorum: Who's Who in the History of Worlds Linguistics , 2nd edition, Tübingen 2009.