LINGUIST List 18.835
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Mon Mar 19 2007
All: Obituary and Tribute: John Sinclair (1933-2007)
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Directory
1. Ute
Römer,
Obituary: John McH. Sinclair (1933 - 2007)
2. Antoinette
Renouf,
ICAME: A Tribute to John Sinclair
Message 1: Obituary: John McH. Sinclair (1933 - 2007)
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Date: 16-Mar-2007
From: Ute Römer <ute.roemerengsem.uni-hannover.de>
Subject: Obituary: John McH. Sinclair (1933 - 2007)
On behalf of Elena Tognini Bonelli
OBITUARY: JOHN SINCLAIR (1933 - 2007)
13 March 2007 was a very sad day for the world of linguistics. John
Sinclair (b. 14 June 1933) died at his home in Florence, aged 73. He will
be deeply missed by his family, his colleagues and his many friends. His
death is a terrible loss to everyone who knew him. Friends and colleagues
are welcome to the interment of the urn which will be at the Cimitero degli
Inglesi in Florence on 28 March at 3.30pm.
John was an outstanding scholar, a first-generation modern corpus linguist
and clearly one of the most open-minded and original thinkers in the field.
He was Professor of Modern English Language at the University of Birmingham
for most of his career and founder of the ground-breaking COBUILD project
in lexical computing which revolutionised lexicography in the 1980s and
resulted in a new generation of corpus-driven dictionaries and reference
materials for English language learners. After his retirement from
Birmingham John moved to Italy where he became President of the Tuscan Word
Centre, an association devoted to promoting the scientific study of
language. On the short intensive courses that the Tuscan Word Centre
offered, John very generously shared his original ideas about language and
linguistics with generations of younger scholars, introduced numerous
students to the fascinating world of corpora and inspired many new ideas
for future research in linguistics. He was an Honorary Life Member of the
Linguistics Association of Great Britain and a member of the Academia
Europaea. John held an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from the University
of Gothenburg, and Honorary Professorships in the Universities of Jiao
Tong, Shanghai and Glasgow.
He is gone now and it will be very hard to get used to it. John's last
email to me just a couple of days ago ended ''Very brief note tonight; more
to follow.'' I will miss him.
Ute
************************************************************
Dr. Ute Römer
English Department
Leibniz University of Hanover
Königsworther Platz 1
30167 Hannover
Germany
Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable
Message 2: ICAME: A Tribute to John Sinclair
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Date: 17-Mar-2007
From: Antoinette Renouf <ajrenoufuce.ac.uk>
Subject: ICAME: A Tribute to John Sinclair
As Chair of ICAME, I am writing on behalf of the ICAME Board and membership
to express our deep sorrow at the news of the death of John Sinclair.
Sorrow is replacing the initial shock and disbelief that one of
our pioneers, still so young and active, will not continue always to be
there, stimulating and inspiring our thoughts, making us think twice at
each step about the fundamental principles which ought to underlie our
work. Many corpus linguists have known John Sinclair for most of their
adult working lives, and he leaves a unique imprint in the evolution of the
field, as well as occupying a huge place in our affections. We each felt
that we owned a little part of John, and our hearts go out to those for
whom his loss has been deepest, his family and close friends.
Antoinette Renouf
Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable
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