Hans Jürgen Heringer

Hans Jürgen Heringer (born April 26, 1939 in Idar-Oberstein ) is a German linguist . He lives as a professor emeritus for German linguistics and German as a foreign language in Herrsching am Ammersee .

life and work

Education and study

Hans Jürgen Heringer started school in the primary school in Taucha near Leipzig in 1945 . Since 1951 he attended (after a serious childhood illness) the high school "Göttenbachschule" in Idar-Oberstein, where he passed the Abitur in 1959. Heringer then studied German and Romance studies in Heidelberg (with Peter von Polenz and Kurt Baldinger , with both of whom he worked as a research assistant) and in Mainz . In 1965 Heringer received his doctorate with the dissertation The opposition of “come” and “bring” as functional verbs .

Despite a handicap, Heringer became a competitive athlete, including playing basketball in the Rhineland-Palatinate regional league and becoming regional champion in apparatus gymnastics (team). In connection with this one can also see his involvement in the fairness initiative of German sport and a publication on the theoretical justification of fairness.

Research and Teaching

From 1964 to 1969 Heringer was a research assistant at the German Department of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg . In 1969 he completed his habilitation with the thesis Theory of German Syntax . From 1969 he was Professor of German Linguistics in Heidelberg. In 1971 he was appointed to a full professorship at the German Department of the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen . After further appointments, he accepted a professorship for German as a second language and intercultural communication at the University of Augsburg in 1981 . Visiting professorships at the University of Copenhagen , the University of Graz , the Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris and the University of Barcelona followed.

Heringer's scientific work is determined by two aspects: on the one hand formal theories of language, on the other hand didactic and practical publications, including language-critical publications.

The linguist

At the beginning of the career there was work on syntax. An independent formal syntax of German was developed here, which helped shape the development of the dependency grammar and valence theory . This was followed by an attempt at slightly formalized practical semantics, which is primarily committed to action theory.

The early cooperation with language didactics resulted in language books for elementary school and the “German Lessons” project that was developed in the team and comprises more than 80 printed works. As editor of the linguistic works and the journal Linguistik und Didaktik , Heringer promoted linguistics in the Federal Republic of Germany during these years.

The language critic

Contact with the language critic was made early on in the dissertation. Heringer was concerned with a linguistic foundation for language criticism. In the booklet I give you my word of honor , language criticism was based on communicative moral principles. In the new book Ein Affe im Spiegel , journalistic methods of reproduction are presented critically.

In 1989, Heringer was the youngest recipient of the Konrad Duden Prize .

Publications (selection)

Syntax and grammar

• 1970: German syntax. Berlin. Collection Göschen. Publishing house de Gruyter. 2nd edition 1973. (Korean 2005)
• 1970: Theory of German Syntax. Munich. Linguistic series. Hueber Verlag. 2nd edition 1973
• 1989: grammar and style. Practical German grammar. Frankfurt. Cornelsen Verlag
• 2013: German grammar. A workbook for students. Paderborn. UTB finch
• 2018: Fit in grammar: short rhyming grammar. mykum Verlag (Brey)

philosophy

• 2018: The little Schopenhauer. In dialogue with yourself. Brey. mykum publishing house
• 2019: "I wish 2X2 was 5!" Ludwig Wittgenstein: An Introduction. Wurzburg. Königshausen & Neumann Publishing House

Semantics and text linguistics

• 1974: practical semantics. Stuttgart. Velcro. (English: Practical Semantics 1978)
• 1999: The highest of feelings. Empirical studies on distributive semantics. Tübingen. Stauffenburg Publishing House
• 2011: Analyze and understand texts. UTB. Paderborn. Fink Publishing House
• 2015: Linguistic Text Theory. An introduction. UTB A. Francke Verlag (Tübingen)
• 2018: Text Linguistics. A work book. mykum Verlag (Brey)

Language didactics and language teaching

• 1986–1993: with H. Frommer / Th. Herold / U. Müller. German lessons. Language book, reading book, workbooks and teachers' books. Vol. 5-10. Berlin. Cornelsen Verlag
• 1996: Grammaire allemande. Paris. Didier Publishing House
• 2014: German grammar and word formation in 125 questions and answers. UTB A. Francke Verlag (Tübingen)

Language criticism

• 1990: "I give you my word of honor". Politics, language, morals. Munich. Beck Publishing House
• 2011: a monkey in the mirror. Journalists and we - a criticism. Tübingen. Stauffenburg Publishing House
• 2015: Language criticism (with Rainer Wimmer). UTB Paderborn. Wilhelm Fink Publishing House
• 2018: communication traps. And how to tap into it. Mykum Verlag (Brey)

Intercultural communication

• 2004: intercultural communication. Basics and concepts. Tübingen and Basel. A. Francke. 5th, revised. and exp. Ed. Tübingen 2017. Korean adaptation 2009
• 2012: intercultural competence. A workbook with an interactive CD and suggested solutions. Tübingen and Basel. A. Francke.

e-learning courses and APPs

• 2002: intercultural communication (e-learning)
• 2003: Intercultural awareness (e-learning)
• 2016: Intercultural Communication (App)
• 2017: Chat with Trump (App English)
• 2017: Various apps for exam simulators, for example "German test for immigrants"

editor

• Linguistics and didactics (= language and literature in science and teaching). Fink Publishing House. Paderborn
• Linguistic work. Niemeyer Publishing House. Tübingen
• LIBAC: Linguistics for Bachelor's. UTB. Fink Publishing House. Paderborn

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans Jürgen Heringer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Personal website heringer.net
• Website at the University of Augsburg