Elisabeth Piirainen, (née Dörrie, born 1943 in

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, – December 29, 2017), was a German

linguist 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 ...

and philologist. After studying linguistics (including German language and Dutch studies) in Münster, Amsterdam, and Helsinki, she received her PhD in 1970 at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...

. Afterwards she worked as an editor for German Language at the

University of Jyväskylä The University of Jyväskylä ( fi, Jyväskylän yliopisto) is a research university in Jyväskylä, Finland. It has its origins in the first Finnish-speaking Teacher Training College (the so-called Teacher Seminary), founded in 1863. Ar ...

located in central Finland. In 1963 she met the Finnish scholar of German language, Ilpo Tapani Piirainen, and married him in 1967. Since 1975, she was in charge of various projects related to Low German

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

. From 2006 to 2010 she was a member of the Scientific Council of the European Society of Phraseology (Europhras). She has been an active scholar in

phraseology In linguistics, phraseology is the study of set or fixed expressions, such as idioms, phrasal verbs, and other types of multi-word lexical units (often collectively referred to as ''phrasemes''), in which the component parts of the expression tak ...

, with a broad European scope. Fifty of her publications related to proverbs are listed by

Wolfgang Mieder Wolfgang Mieder (born 17 February 1944) is a retired professor of German and folklore at the University of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont, USA, where he had taught for 50 years. He is a graduate of Olivet College (BA), the University of Michigan ...

in his two-volume bibliography on

paremiology Paremiology () is the collection and study of paroemias (proverbs). It is a subfield of both philology and linguistics. History Paremiology can be dated back as far as Aristotle. Paremiography, on the other hand, is the collection of proverbs. ...

and phraseology. Retired, she lived in Steinfurt, Germany. She unexpectedly died on December 29, 2017. The breadth of her contribution and its impact was described soon after her death, "The fascinating world of widespread idioms: A tribute to Elisabeth Piirainen (1943-2017)".

Awards

*1967 Förderpreis für Westfälische Landeskunde *2001 the John Sass Award Link to John Sass prize page for her ''Phraseologie der westmünsterländischen Mundart'' (2 volumes) (''Phraseology of West Münsterland dialect''). Recognition of her work: *Fedulenkova, Tatiana. “Notes on Elisabeth Piirainen’s Linguistic Achievements ndElisabeth Piirainen: List of Publications.” ''Modern Phraseology Issues''. Ed. Tatiana Fedulenkova. Arkhangelsk: Solti, 2018. 9-13 and 186-200.

References

Publications

*''Bessmoders Tied'' mundartliches Lesebuch, 1987, *''Wörterbuch der westmünsterländischen Mundart.'' Heimatverein Vreden, 1992, *''Phraseologie der westmünsterländischen Mundart.'' Teil 1 und 2. (Lexikon der westmünsterländischen Redensarten), 2000 *''Symbole in Sprache und Kultur'' (with Dmitrij O. Dobrovolʹskij), Bochum Brockmeyer, 1997, *''Phraseologie in Raum und Zeit.'' Schneider-Verl. Hohengehren, 2002, *Europeanism, internationalism or something else? Proposal for a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural research project on widespread idioms in Europe and beyond. ''Hermes, Journal of Linguistics'' 35:45-75, 2005. *''Figurative Language. Cross-cultural and Cross-linguistic Perspective'' (with Dmitrij O. Dobrovolʹskij), Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2005, *''Zur Theorie der Phraseologie'' (with Dmitrij O. Dobrovolʹskij), Tübingen Stauffenburg-Verlag, 2009, *''Endangered Metaphors'' (with Anna E. Idström), Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins, 2012, *''Widespread Idioms in Europe and Beyond. Toward a Lexicon of Common Figurative Units.'' New York: Peter Lang, 2012, Co-authored *Dobrovol’skij, Dmitrij, and Elisabeth Piirainen. “Conventional Figurative Language Theory and Idiom Motivation.” ''Yearbook of Phraseology'' 9 (2018), 5-30.

External links

*
Information on her in German
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piirainen, Elisabeth Linguists from Germany German philologists Writers from Hanover 1943 births 21st-century women scientists Proverb scholars 2017 deaths Women folklorists Women linguists German expatriates in Finland