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

linguistics Linguistics is the science, 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 ...

, specializing in

pragmatics In linguistics and related fields, pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship between the interpreter and the in ...

. He was

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

in the Institute of Language and Communication at the

University of Southern Denmark The University of Southern Denmark ( da, Syddansk Universitet, lit=South Danish University, abbr. SDU) is a university in Denmark that has campuses located in Southern Denmark and on Zealand. The university offers a number of joint programmes in ...

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

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 studie ...

. He has also worked at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

, the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

Tsukuba University is a public research university located in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. It is a top 10 Designated National University, and was ranked Type A by the Japanese government as part of the Top Global University Project. The university has 28 college cl ...

, The National Language Research Institute, Tokyo,

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, the

City University of Hong Kong City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is a world-class public research university located in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1984 as City Polytechnic of Hong Kong and became a fully accredited university in 1994. Currently, CityU is ...

, the University of Frankfurt,

Universidade Estadual de Campinas The State University of Campinas ( pt, Universidade Estadual de Campinas), commonly called Unicamp, is a public research university in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Unicamp is consistently ranked among the top universities in Brazil and Latin ...

Universidade de Brasília The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and " Olympiad". The Universiade is refer ...

, the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa ( he, אוניברסיטת חיפה Arabic: جامعة حيفا) is a university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation in 1972, becoming ...

and Haifa Technion,

Södertörn University College Södertörn is a roughly triangular peninsula and artificial island in eastern Södermanland, Sweden, which is bordered by: *Lake Mälaren and the inlet of Saltsjön (a part of the Baltic Sea) to the north, *The Baltic Sea (the Stockholm Ar ...

, and

Örebro University Örebro University ( sv, Örebro universitet) is a state university in Örebro, Sweden. The university has its roots in the Örebro campus of Uppsala University, which became an independent state university college in 1977, Örebro University Col ...

. Until 2010, he was chief editor of the ''

Journal of Pragmatics The ''Journal of Pragmatics'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the linguistic subfield of pragmatics. It was established in 1977 by Jacob L. Mey (at that time Odense University) and Hartmut Haberland (Roskilde University). T ...

'', 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 oldest universiti ...

Personal life and death

Mey was married to Inger Mey from 1965; they had five children. May died in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

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 science, 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 ...

'', 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'', ed. Jørgen Dines Johansen, Harly Sonne, and Hartmut Haberland (1986) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mey, Jacob L. 1926 births 2023 deaths Linguists from Denmark Pragmaticists Academic staff of Örebro University Academic staff of the University of Southern Denmark Danish people of Dutch descent People from Amsterdam