Peter Kosta (curriculum vitae)
born: September 20, 1955 in Prague, Czechoslovakia
parents: father Heinrich Georg Kosta (born Kohn, October 2nd 1921 in Prague) economist; mother Helena Kosta (born Kohoutová, February 29th, 1932) artist; famous relatives: Grandfather Oskar Kosta (alias Peter Pont), poet and translator of Prague German literature into Czech and Czech poetry into German
one sister Ivana Palek (born Kostová, July 10th, 1952)
Married 15.06.07 with Valérys Alsapiedi-Kosta
Education:
1962-68: Czech Elementary school (Czech mother tongue, with Russian as 1. foreign language)
1968/1969: emigration via Vienna to Germany with parents (father was a leading economist and reformer during the period of the „Spring of Prague“ under Ota Sik and Alexander Dubcek)
1968–1969: Vienna, Comenius-Gymnasium
1970–1971: Munich, Pestalozzi-Gymnasium (1. foreign language Latin, 2. English)
1971: German citizenship
1971–1976: Frankfurt am Main, J.W. Goethe–Gymnasium (1. foreign language English, 2. Latin, 3. Russian)
1976: „Abitur“ (incl. Großes Latinum) J.W. Goethe-Gymnasium, Frankfurt am Main
1976–1981: Slavic Philology, Music sciences, Indo-European and General Linguistics, J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main
1980: „Graecum“ (Old Greek certificate) (Gagern-Gymnasium, Frankfurt am Main)
1981: Magister artium (Book: „A Russian Cosmography of the 17th Century. A Linguistic Analysis with Textedition and Facsimile“, Munich:Sagner 1982, Specimina philologiae Slavicae, vol. 40)
1982–1987: Assistant (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) at the Department of Indo-European languages (Prof. Dr.Werner Thomas), J.W. Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main
1986: Ph.D. J.W. Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main (published Ph.-diss.: „Problems of the Švejk-Translations into the West- and Southslavic languages. Linguistic studies on translation of literary texts“, Munich: Sagner 1986, Specimina philologiae Slavicae, Suppl. volume 13), distinction: „summa cum laude“ (Doktorvater: Prof. Dr. Gerd Freidhof)
1987–1992: Assistant Professor (Hochschulassistent C1) at the Fachbereich 11: Ost- und außereuropäische Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaften, J.W. Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main
1990, January-April invited Visiting Fellow at the Institut russkogo jazyka, Institut jazykoznanija and Institut slavjanovedenija and Morice Torez RAN (Moscow, St. Petersburg) by Prof. E.A Zemskaja, G.A. Zolotova, A.V. Bondarko et al.
1990, July On competition by invitation at the Department of Slavic languages at the University Genéve; on competition at the Slavic Department, Freie Universität Berlin
Since 1990 Lectures at the Charles University in Prague, Masaryk University Brno, Opole Univ., Warsaw Univ. etc.
1992: „Habilitation“ (Venia legendi in Slavic Philology/Linguistics) J.W. Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main (Habil-Thesis: „Empty Categories in Slavic languages. A Government-Binding-Analysis of Empty Subjects and Objects“, Frankfurt am Main 1992, 697 pp.). Consultants: Prof. Dr. Rudolf Růžička, Univ.Leipzig; Prof. Dr. Günter Grewendorf, General Linguistics Dept. Univ. Frankfurt am Main; Prof. Dr. Gerd Freidhof, Slavic Dept. Univ. Frankfurt am Main
September 1992–March 1993: Visiting Professor at the chair „Slavic linguistics and History of Languages“ at the Technical University in Dresden
1992-1993: On 8 competitions for the Professor of Slavic languages: 5 list positions: Potsdam (No.1), Humboldt Univ. Berlin (No.1), Leipzig (No. 1), Dresden (No.1), Jena (No.2).
March 1993: received two calls from the Humboldt University Berlin and University Potsdam
since 1993: Full Professor (Ordinarius, C4) and Chair Westslavic linguistics at the University Potsdam, since 2005 Slavic linguistics
1994-1996: Vice Director/Chairman of the Department of the Slavic languages and literatures at the University Potsdam
1996-1998: several lectures given at the Linguistic Department, University of Chicago, IL (invited by James McCawley); Princeton University (invited by Len Babby and Charles Townsend); Indiana University Bloomington (invited by Steven Franks); Department of Slavic languages at the University Helsinky (invited by H. Tommola and Leonid Birjulin)
1996-1998: Director/Chairman of the of the Department of the Slavic languages and literatures at the University Potsdam
1999: October-December: Visiting Fellow at the Department of Slavic languages, Princeton University; lectures given: at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., MIT; Indiana University Bloomington (by DFG sponsored Project: Morphosyntax of Negation in Slavic languages within the Minimalist program and Optimality Theory)
Since 2001: Director of the Department of Slavic languages and literatures at the University Potsdam
September 2002: Lectures given at Uppsala University, Slavic Department, Sweden
December 2002: Lectures given at the Masaryk Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Faculty of Arts at the Charles University, Czech republic
8.-9. June 2004: On assessment board of the Institut of Czech languages, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
6. 9. 2004: External Expert (Supervisor) of the PhD committee of Tijana Asic, M.A. (PhD thesis presented at the Faculté des Lettres de l’Université de Genève pour l’obtention du titre de Docteur ès Lettres, mention Linguistique et à l’Institut des Sciences Cognitives, Université Lumière - Lyon 2); « La représentation cognitive du temps et de l’espace: étude pragmatique des données linguistiques en Français et dans d’autres langues » (Members of the PhD committee : Professeur Eric Wehrli: Président du Jury; Professeurs Anne Reboul, Jacques Moeschler: Directeurs; Professeur Nicholas Asher University of Texas, Austin; Professeur Peter Kosta, Universität Potsdam; Professeur Ira Noveck, l’Institut des Sciences Cognitives, Université Lumière - Lyon 2)
01.03.2005-01.07.2005 Sabbatical, Stay in the US and Canada:
- Invitation as Visiting Fellow to the Department of Slavic Languages at Princeton University by the Head of the Department, the Dean of the Faculty and the President of the Princeton University. Research project on „Word Order Variation and the Theory of Minimal Movement within the Principles & Parameters Approach“.
- Papers will be presented at General Linguistics and Slavic Departments : Montréal (invited by Igor’ Mel’čuk), MIT (invited by Noam Chomsky), University of Massachusetts at Amherst (invited by Barbara Partee, Lisa Selkirk and Bob Rothstein), University of Connecticut at Storrs (UConn; invited by Željko Bošković), Brown University, Providence, RI (invited by Mako Fiedler), , City University of New York (CUNY; invited by Marcel den Dikken) und University of Chicago (invited by Salikoko Mufwene). Participation at the 14th Workshop Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics (FASL) in Princeton (6.-8.5.2005).
Memberships and honours:
President of the Ludvík Kundera Institute Wilhelmshorst in Peter Huchel Haus
Member of the Research Support Scheme of the Open Society Institute of the Higher Education Support Programme of the Soros Foundation (Prague, Warsaw, Budapest)
Member of the German-Czech Association, Berlin-Potsdam-Prague (with Peter Demetz, Yale/New Haven, H.D. Zimmermann, TU Berlin and others)
Member of the Dobrovský Association (Dresden)
Adv. board: Germany Comenius Society (Comenius Jahrbuch) Berlin, Russistik/Rusistika Berlin
Member of the Graduate Colleague (Graduiertenkolleg) of the Humboldt University Berlin and University Potsdam, sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) on the project „Economy and Complexity of the language“ (since 1995) [with Manfred Bierwisch, Peter Eisenberg, Gisbert Fanselow, Caroline Féry, Ewald Lang, Manfred Krifka, Ria de Bleser, Jürgen Weissenborn, Karin Dornhauser et al.]
Member of the „Rada załožby za serbski lud“ (council of the Foundation for the Sorbs/Wends) since 2003
Member of the council of the Sorbian Institute Bautzen/Budyšyn of the Sorbian/Lusation Foundation
Member of assessment committees for promoting to the rang of "full professor" or on PhD committees: John Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland, USA), Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana (USA), Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, The University of Texas at Austin (USA), TU Dresden (2x), Frankfurt am Main, Universität Wien. PhD-committee Lily Schürcks-Grozeva: defense Rijksuniversiteit Groningen October 16, 2003. Promotor: Prof. dr. J. Koster; Beoorderlingscommissie: Prof. dr. S. Franks, Prof. dr. A.G.B. ter Meulen; Prof. dr. E.J. Reuland; further members of the defense committee: Prof.dr. Peter Kosta, Prof. dr. John Nerbonne; Prof. dr. Jan Wouter Zwart.
Editorial work:
Editor of: Studia Indogermanica et Slavica. Festgabe für Werner Thomas zum 65. Geburtstag. Herausgegeben von Peter Kosta unter Mitarbeit von Gabriele Lerch und Peter Olivier. München:Sagner 1988 (Specimina philologiae Slavicae. Supplementband 26)
Coeditor of: Juden und Judentum in Literatur und Film des slavischen Sprachraums: Die geniale Epoche. Herausgegeben von Peter Kosta, Holt Meyer und Natascha Drubek-Meyer. Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz Verlag 1999.
Coeditor of the "Czech library in German language" in 33 volumes. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt Stuttgart/München; with Peter Demetz (Yale), Hans Dieter Zimmermann (TU Berlin), Jiri Grusa (Prague), Eckhard Thiele (Berlin). (until July 2002 14 volumes). Sponsored by Robert Bosch Stiftung
Coeditor of the series „Specimina philologiae Slavicae. Munich:Sagner (with Gerd Freidhof and Olexa Horbatsch) since 1986
Editor-in-chief of the journal „Zeitschrift für Slawistik“. Berlin:Akademie Verlag (with Karl Gutschmidt, W. Kosny and Ludger Udolph) since 1995, since 1999 editor-in-chief
Editor-in-chief of the HSK series handbook „Slavic languages. An International Handbook of their Structure, History and Investigation“. Berlin/New York:Walter de Gruyter, since 1997
[with Tilman Berger, Karl Gutschmidt and Sebastian Kempgen]
Coeditor of the series „Linguistics in Potsdam“. Potsdam (with Gisbert Fanselow, Peter Staudacher, Manfred Bierwisch, Chris Wilder, Markus Kracht and others)
Coeditor of the series „Potsdamer Beiträge zur Sorabistik. Podstupimske pśinoski k Sorabistice. “ (with Madlena Norberg, since 1999 5 volumes)
Coeditor of the volume Current Approaches to Formal Slavic Linguistics. Contributions of the Second Conference on Formal Description of Slavic Languages (FDSL II) held at Potsdam University, November 20-22, 1997. Frankfurt am Main [etc.]: Lang. (= Linguistik International; 9). 2002.
Coeditor of the volume Investigations into Formal Slavic Linguistics. Proceedings of the Fourth European Conference on Formal Description of Slavic Languages (FDSL IV), Potsdam, November 28-30, 2001. Frankfurt am Main usw.: Lang 2003.
Since I/2003: academic advisory board of: CASSUBIA SLAVICA. Internationales Jahrbuch für Kaschubische Studien. Founded by Marcin M. Bobrowski, Marek Kwidzinski and Hanna Tobby
Since 2007: Editor-in-chief of the new series (with Gerda Hassler, Lilia Schürcks and Nadine Thielemann): Potsdam Linguistic Investigations - Potsdamer Linguistische Untersuchungen - Recherches Linguistiques à Potsdam, Peter Lang
On the board of international PhD Dissertations since 2007 :
Natalia Slioussar, "Grammar and Information Structure: a study with reference to Russian" Reading committee members: Guglielmo Cinque, Martin Everaert, Peter Kosta, Ad Neeleman and Kriszta Sendröi; Promoters: Prof. Dr. E. J. Reuland, Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, the Netherlands, Prof. Dr. F.N.K. Wijnen, Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, the Netherlands, Prof. Dr. T.V. Chernigovskaya, St. Petersburg State University, Russia Defence 4. July 2007 'cum laude' Committe: Prof. Dr. E. J. Reuland, Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, the Netherlands, Prof. Dr. F.N.K. Wijnen, Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, the Netherlands, Prof. Dr. T.V. Chernigovskaya, St. Petersburg State University, Russia, Prof. Dr. Peter Kosta, Potsdam University, Germany, Prof. Dr. Ad Neeleman, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College of London, UK
Svetlana Ermolenko "Determination im Russischen" 1. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Hans-Heinrich Lieb (Professor of General and German Linguistics, FU Berlin) 2. Gutacher: Prof. Dr. Peter Kosta (Slavische Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Potsdam) Verteidigung: 6.11.2007 (FU Berlin) mit magna cum laude (schriftlich) und summa cum laude (müdlich). Gesamtergebnis: magna cum laude
Olga Khomitsevich „Dependencies across Phases: From sequence of tense to restrictions on movement” Promoters: Prof. Dr. E. J. Reuland (Utrecht Institute of Linguistics, OTS), Tatiana V. Chernigovskaya (St. Petersburg State University) External evaluators: Ora Matushansky (Sorbonne, Paris, now Utrecht), Angelika Kratzer (Department of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Peter Kosta (University of Potsdam). Reading and PhD committee members: Sergey Avrutin, Tatiana V. Chernigovskaya, Martin Everaert, Peter Kosta, Ora Matushansky (Sorbonne, Paris, now Utrecht E. J. Reuland, Maaike Schoorlemmer Verteidigung: 11. January 2008 'cum laude' (mit Auszeichnung), Utrecht Institute of Linguistics, OTS
Jaroslav Kyncl „Semi lexical heads in Czech modal structures”. A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Promoters: Dr. Thomas Dickins (University of Wolverhampton), Prof. Dr. Andrew Caing (University of Westminster, London) External evaluator: Prof. Dr. Peter Kosta Verteidigung: 12.2.2008, University of Wolverhampton.
29.April bis 1. Mai 2009: Im Auftrag des Instituts und der Universitätsleitung -Vertragsverhandlungen mit den Moskauer Staatliche Gebietsuniversität (MGOU), Russische Universität der Völkerfreundschaft (RUDN) und Akademie für Arbeit und soziale Beziehungen (ATiSO) im Rahmen des von DAAD subventionierten BA Modellstudiengangs "Interdisziplinäre Russlandstudien Kultur, Sprache, Politik, Verwaltung und Wirtschaft" (mit Dr. R.-R. Lamprecht)
Interests:
Author of 3 monographs and many articles on theory of language, language universals and typology of languages, comparative slavic syntax, speech act theory, discourse and conversational analysis; semantics and language contact (minority languages), theory of translation
Active knowledge of foreign languages: Czech, German, Russian, English, French, Polish, Slovak, Serbo-Croatian, Lower Sorbian, Slovene, Swedish, Italian, Bulgarian.
Passive/descriptive knowledge: Old Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Old Irish, Lituanian, Tocharian
Invited speaker:
22-25 August 2007 - invited speaker at the SLS 2 conference Berlin (ZAS) "Quantification of DPs/NPs in Slavic"
September 2007 - Participation at the Conference "Kul'tura reci" at the Institute of Russian Language V.V. Vinogradov of the Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow, by invitation of Alexei Shmelev, V.V. Vinogradov Institute of Russian Language, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, and Elena Shmeleva, V.V. Vinogradov Institute of Russian Language, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
28. August – 2. September 2008 - Participation at ICHoLS XI International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences Gefördert von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft December,
5-6 2008: invited speaker at the International Workshop "Diachronic Syntax in Slavonic languages: Gradual changes in focus" University Regensburg(http://www.phil.muni.cz/jazyk/dssl/)
25.-28. April 2009: Eingeladen zum Gastvortrag an der Universität Catania, Fakultät für Recht, Sizilien mit dem Thema: Conflict Indication and Overcoming Dissent in the Parliamentary Discourse of the Countries in Central and Eastern Europe
11.-12. Juni 2009: Eingeladen als invited speaker zu der internationalen Konferenz "The Ghosts of the Past: everyday life 20 years after the fall of Communism". Date: 11-12 June 2009. Venue: University of East London, Docklands Campus http://www.uel.ac.uk/ghosts/
9.-12. September 2009: Teilnahme am SLE 42nd Annual Meeting. Lisboa 9 bis 12 September 2009: Global Languages Local Languages. Universidade de Lisboa. Faculdade de Letras, Portugal mit dem Vortrag: Kosta, Peter (Universität Potsdam). "Sentential Negation, Adverbs and Pronominal clitics in Slavic (and some Romance) Languages ? global vs. local tendencies of language contact".
http://www.societaslinguistica.eu/meetings/conference%20lisboa/program.htm
1.10. - 3.10. 2009: Teilnahme am 10. Deutschen Slavistentag in Tübingen mit dem Vortrag: "Kausative Verben und Konstruktionen im
Tschechischen:
zur Beziehung von Syntax und Semantik in Montague-Grammatik und in der generativen Syntax"
29.10. 2009: Einladung zum Gastvortrag an das Institut für Slawistik der Universität Wien zum Thema "Kausative und Antikausative im Tschechischen, Russischen, Polnischen, Englischen und Deutschen"
2.12. - 5.12.2009: Organisation der Achten Intern. Europäischen Konferenz "Formal Description of Slavic Languages - FDSL VIII", http://www.uni-potsdam.de/fdsl_8/. Vortrag zum Thema: "Causatives and Anticausatives, Unaccusatives and Unergatives: or How Can Lexicon Contribute to the Sentence Structure: Examples from Czech, Russian, Polish, German and English"
6.5.-8.5.2010 Invited speaker at the workshop on Epistemic Modality, Nouvelle Sorbonne 3, Paris
Organizer of International Conferences:
Formal Description of Slavic Languages (FDSL II): Second European Conference held at the University Potsdam November, 20-22 1997 (volume in print)
Formal Description of Slavic Languages (FDSL IV): Fourth European Conference held at the University Potsdam November, 28-30 2001 (volume in preparation)
35. Tagung der Societas Linguistica Europea (SLE). July, 22-25. 2002
Stereotyp und Geschichtsmythos in Kunst und Sprache, Potsdam, 16.-18.1.2003 (with Dr. Katrin Berwanger)
September 2007 "Konstanzer Arbeitstreffen: Slavistische Linguistik" Potsdam
FDSL VIII: Formal Description of Slavic Languages ( FDSL VIII): Eighth European Conference, December 3-5, 2009.
Peter Kosta
Potsdam, September 2008
Updated 22-09-08.
References: Who's who in Germany. Montreal-Berlin-Paris-Wien IBP. Wer ist wer? Das deutsche Who's who. Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Schmidt-Römhild Verlag Lübeck 1999/2000.
Slovník osobností jazykovedné bohemistiky Machová, Svatava - Chvátalová, Klára - Velcovský, Václav (eds.) http://kcjl.modry.cz/studenti/sl_index.htm
Pleskalová, Jana, Krcmova, Marie, Vecerka, Radoslav, Karlik, Petr (eds.): Kapitoly z dejin ceské jazykovedné bohemistiky (rada Lingvistika), Praha 2007: Academia, S. 106.