Professor E.F. Konrad Koerner (5 February 1939 – 6 January, 2022)

We are deeply saddened by the news of the death of Professor E.F. Konrad Koerner (5 February 1939 – 6 January, 2022). The Henry Sweet Society counts Konrad among its founder members; his energy and dedication did much to shape the field of the history of linguistics, and his legacy lives on in the vibrancy of the field now. He will be much missed.

We share below a statement from John Benjamins Publishing Company which highlights Professor Koerner’s impressive contribution to our field.

Staff and management of John Benjamins Publishing Company were greatly saddened by the news that E.F.K. Koerner passed away on January 6th.

It was a meeting between (Ernst Frideryk) Konrad Koerner and John Benjamins that ultimately led to John Benjamins Publishing Company having a strong focus on linguistics and the language sciences. The cooperation started in 1973 with the founding of the journal 'Historiographia Linguistica', the first volume of which appeared in 1974 and which is still going strong. The history of the language sciences was the subject closest to Konrad Koerner's heart and he edited the journal himself until about a year ago.

The journal was followed in the early '70s by the "Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science", an umbrella covering five book series: "Amsterdam Classics in Linguistics, 1800-1925", "Classics in Psycholinguistics", "Library & Information Sources in Linguistics", "Current Issues in Linguistic Theory" (CILT), and "Studies in the History of the Language Sciences" (SiHoLS). The latter two of these series continue to be active publishing monographs and edited volumes to this day. The editorship of CILT was handed over some years ago already, but the hand-over of the editorship of SiHoLS had only very recently been completed. In 1988 Benjamins also became the publisher of the journal 'Diachronica',  which Konrad Koerner had founded with Philip H. Baldi and Allan R. Bomhard four years earlier, at Georg Olms Verlag, and which he edited until 2001. Although over the years the editorship of these journals and book series was handed to new editors, Konrad Koerner never ceased to take an interest in them.

With the founding and editing of these journals and series, the contribution of Konrad Koerner to the field of linguistics, and especially the history of the language sciences, cannot be overstated. In addition, of course, he has contributed considerably with his own work, published in many articles and monographs over the years, up to his "Last Papers in Linguistic Historiography" in 2020.   

We are sad, but comforted by the knowledge that we, and many others elsewhere, may keep this impressive legacy and build on it.