Jacob L. Mey is a professor of linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

, specializing in pragmatics

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning. Pragmatics encompasses speech act theory, conversational implicature, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior in philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. It studies how the...

. He is currently Professor Emeritus in the Institute of Language and Communication at the University of Southern Denmark

University of Southern Denmark

The University of Southern Denmark, with campuses located in the southwestern part of Denmark - i.e. Funen, Southern Jutland and Sealand - is a research and educational institution with deep regional roots and an international outlook. Reaching even further south, the university offers a number of...

, from which he retired in 1996.

Career

Mey received his PhD in Linguistics from the University of Copenhagen

University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

 in 1960, supervised by Louis Hjelmslev

Louis Hjelmslev

Louis Hjelmslev was a Danish linguist whose ideas formed the basis of the Copenhagen School of linguistics. Born into an academic family , Hjelmslev studied comparative linguistics in Copenhagen, Prague and Paris...

. He has also worked at the University of Oslo

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

, the University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

, Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

, Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, Tsukuba University, The National Language Research Institute

National Institute for Japanese Language

The is an independent administrative institution in Japan, established for the purpose of studying, surveying, promoting, and making recommendations for the proper usage of the Japanese language....

, Tokyo, Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

, the City University of Hong Kong

City University of Hong Kong

City University of Hong Kong is a comprehensive research university in Hong Kong. It was founded in 1984 as City Polytechnic of Hong Kong and became a fully accredited university in 1994. It has achieved fast growth in recent years and received international recognition for its academic achievements...

, the University of Frankfurt, Universidade Estadual de Campinas

Universidade Estadual de Campinas

Universidade Estadual de Campinas is one of the three public universities of the Brazilian state of São Paulo, along both USP and UNESP....

, Universidade de Brasília, the University of Haifa

University of Haifa

The University of Haifa is a university in Haifa, Israel.The University of Haifa was founded in 1963 by Haifa mayor Abba Hushi, to operate under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....

 and Haifa Technion, Södertörn University College

Södertörn University College

Södertörn University College is a public university college located in Flemingsberg, which is located in Huddinge Municipality, and the larger area called Södertörn, in Stockholm County, Sweden. In 2009, it had 6,300 full-time-students...

, and Örebro University

Örebro University

Örebro University is a state university in Örebro, Sweden.University-level education in Örebro started in 1960s, when Uppsala University started to give some courses in Örebro. On the basis of these activities, an independent högskola was created in 1977 under the name Högskolan i Örebro...

.

Until 2010, he was chief editor of the Journal of Pragmatics

Journal of Pragmatics

The Journal of Pragmatics is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Elsevier. The Journal of Pragmatics was established in 1977 by Jacob L. Mey and Hartmut Haberland . The journal has an impact factor of 0.798. The editors in chief are Jonathan Culpeper and Neal R. Norrick ....

, which he founded in 1977 with Hartmut Haberland. He is chief editor of RASK, the international journal of language and communication, and one of the editors of Pragmatics & Society.

He originated the notion of the pragmeme.

In 1992 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Zaragoza

University of Zaragoza

The University of Zaragoza or sometimes Saragossa University is a university located in Zaragoza, in the Aragon region of Spain...

.

Selected works

• Pragmalinguistics: Theory and Practice (1979) Rasmus Rask Studies in Pragmatic Linguistics 1. ISBN 9027977577
• Whose Language? A Study in Linguistic Pragmatics (1985) Pragmatics & Beyond Companion Series 3. ISBN 9027250049
• Pragmatics: An Introduction (1993) ISBN 0631186913. 2nd ed. (2001) ISBN 9780631211327
• When Voices Clash: A Study in Literary Pragmatics (2000) Trends in Linguistics 115. ISBN 3-11-01-582
• (ed.) Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics (1998) ISBN 0080429920
• (ed., with István Kecskés) Intention, Common Ground and the Egocentric Speaker-Hearer (2008) Mouton Series in Pragmatics 4. ISBN 9783110206067

Sources

• Contributor biography, The handbook of Discourse Analysis, ed. Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi Ehernberger Hamilton, (2001, repr. 2004), ISBN 0-631-20596-9, pp. xv-xvi
• Jørgen Dines Johansen and Harly Sonne, "Foreword," Pragmatics and Linguistics: Festschrift for Jacob L. Mey on his 60th Birthday 30 October 1986, ed. Jørgen Dines Johansen, Harly Sonne, and Hartmut Haberland (1986) ISBN 8774926039