* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LINGUIST List logo Eastern Michigan University Wayne State University *
* People & Organizations * Jobs * Calls & Conferences * Publications * Language Resources * Text & Computer Tools * Teaching & Learning * Mailing Lists * Search *
* *
LINGUIST List 16.2469

Wed Aug 24 2005

All: Obituary: Jacques Arends

Editor for this issue: Michael Appleby <michaellinguistlist.org>

To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html
Directory
        1.    Marlyse Baptista, Obituary: Jacques Arends
Message 1: Obituary: Jacques Arends
Date: 19-Aug-2005
From: Marlyse Baptista <baptistauga.edu>
Subject: Obituary: Jacques Arends


Obituary for Jacques Arends by Armin Schwegler

Jacques Arends died on the 16th of August due to complications
arising from his treatment for leukemia. To many of us, Jacques was
both a colleague and a dear friend.

Meticulous, modest, fair, patient, enthusiastic, and always curious,
Jacques was an outstanding researcher and excellent teacher. Before
joining the University of Amsterdam he had been a secondary school
teacher, which may explain why his classes were always planned with
such detail and so far in advance. It is, however, his research that left
the biggest mark on our field of creolistics. He pioneered the use of
demographic information in the study of creole languages, especially
those of Suriname. Quick to realize the importance of demographic
records for reconstructing early creole history, Jacques had launched
a long-term project on the subject, and continued working on it until
the time of his death.

Jacques is probably best known for his publications of (and on) 18th-
and 19th- creole texts from Suriname. His 1989 doctoral dissertation
concerned itself with syntactic change in Sranan over a two-hundred
year period. Some of these materials made their way into his Pidgins
and Creoles: An Introduction (1994), which he co-edited with Pieter
Muysken and Norval Smith. Following up on his Early Suriname
Creole Documents (J. Arends & M. Perl, 1994), he spent the last
period of his life planning a large series of editions of older creole
texts and relevant sources.

But let me return to Jacques the person: Jacques was, above all, a
good guy, the sort of congenial and giving individual one wishes to
have as friend. And a great friend he was, to so many of us. We will
miss him sorely.

Armin Schwegler
President, Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (SPCL)

Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue



Please report any bad links or misclassified data

LINGUIST Homepage | Read LINGUIST | Contact us

NSF Logo

While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed
on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.