In April 2021, we suffered a tremendous loss when Pieter Muysken passed away. We miss him as a friend, a colleague, a most distinguished linguist and our guide. In the 2022 keynote discussion, Gerrit Jan Kootstra (Radboud University Nijmegen) and Jacomine Nortier (Utrecht University) explored the impact of his work and person on the field of linguistics and the language sciences in general.
“It is impossible to cover the full range of activities and research that he initiated or actively participated in. After an introduction where we focus on Pieter as a person and how that related to his work, we will highlight his integrative approach to language research, which had an impact on many disciplines of language research (linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, historical linguistics). We do this in the form of a discussion where both of us give examples of how Pieter’s lines of work influenced our own work and the language sciences in general. We strongly believe that Pieter’s integrative approach to the language sciences should be continued and expanded. Together with the audience we hope we will be able to envisage future directions in which Pieter Muysken’s legacy will inspire us.”
