Angelika Kratzer Explained

Angelika Kratzer
Birth Place:	Mindelheim, Germany
Nationality:	German, resident of the United States since 1985
Thesis Title:	Semantik der Rede: Kontexttheorie, Modalwörter, Konditionalsätze
Thesis Year:	1979
Alma Mater:	University of Konstanz
Discipline:	Linguistics
Sub Discipline:	Semantics
Website:	https://people.umass.edu/kratzer/

Angelika Kratzer is a professor emerita of linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.^[1]

Biography

She was born in Germany, and received her PhD from the University of Konstanz in 1979, with a dissertation entitled Semantik der Rede. She is an influential and widely cited semanticist whose expertise includes modals, conditionals, situation semantics, and a range of topics relating to the syntax–semantics interface.^[2]

Among her most influential ideas are: a unified analysis of modality of different flavors (building on the work of Jaakko Hintikka); a modal analysis of conditionals;^[3] and the hypothesis ("the little v hypothesis") that the agent argument of a transitive verb is introduced syntactically whereas the theme argument is selected for lexically.^[4]

She co-wrote with Irene Heim the semantics textbook Semantics in Generative Grammar, and is co-editor, with Irene Heim, of the journal Natural Language Semantics.^[5]

Awards

In 2012, Kratzer was named a Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America.^[6]

Selected publications

• Book: Heim . Irene . Kratzer . Angelika . Semantics in Generative Grammar . 1998 . Blackwell . Malden, Mass. . 0631197125 . 1.
• Kratzer . Angelika . What 'must' and 'can' must and can mean . Linguistics and Philosophy . January 1977 . 1 . 3 . 337–355 . 10.1007/BF00353453 . 8 March 2024.
• Book: Kratzer . Angelika . Portner . Paul H. . Partee . Barbara H. . Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings . 15 April 2008 . John Wiley & Sons . 978-0-470-75818-2 . 289–393 . https://books.google.com/books?id=ptgUWREtAkMC&dq=info:XkicqY1gOScJ:scholar.google.com&pg=PA289 . en . The notional category of modality.
• Book: Kratzer . Angelika . Carlson . Gregory N. . Pelletier . Francis Jeffry . The Generic Book . 2010 . Univ. of Chicago Press . Chicago . 978-0226092911 . 125–175 . Digit. print. . Stage-Level and Individual-Level Predicates.
• Kratzer . Angelika . Rooryck . J. . Zaring . L. . Severing the External Argument from its Verb . Phrase Structure and the Lexicon . 1996 . 33 . 109–137 . 10.1007/978-94-015-8617-7_5 . 8 March 2024 . Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory . Springer . Dordrecht. 978-90-481-4621-5 .
• Book: Kratzer . Angelika . Modals and Conditionals: New and Revised Perspectives . 12 January 2012 . Oxford University Press . 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199234684.001.0001 . 978-0-19-173843-2 . 8 March 2024 . en.

See also

• Formal semantics (linguistics)
• Generative grammar
• Modality (natural language)
• Modal logic

Notes and References

1. Web site: Faculty Linguistics UMass Amherst. www.umass.edu. en. 2017-11-06.
2. Web site: Google Scholar.
3. Book: Lassiter, Daniel. Graded Modality: Qualitative and Quantitative Perspectives. Oxford University Press. 2017. 9780198701354. 73–74.
4. Book: Wechsler, Stephen. Word Meaning and Syntax: Approaches to the Interface. Oxford University Press. 2015. 9780199279890. 252 ff.
5. Web site: Natural Language Semantics - incl. option to publish open access. springer.com. en. 2017-11-06.
6. Web site: LSA Fellows By Surname Linguistic Society of America . www.linguisticsociety.org . Linguistic Society of America . 8 March 2024.