Herbert Schendl

Herbert Schendl 2014

Herbert Schendl (Ph.D. 1971 University of Vienna, "Habilitation" 1985 University of Vienna, "Ao. Univ.-Prof" 1986, "O. Univ.-Prof." 1992 University of Vienna) is Professor and Chair Emeritus for English Historical Linguistics at the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Vienna. He has been the third "Luick"-Chair and a major proponent of the Vienna School of English Historical Linguisitics (an honour that has since Schendl's retirement in 2007 been held by Nikolaus Ritt as the fourth such chair).

Schendl's work spans from Old English to Late Modern English, though his interests include present-day varieties and, not insignificantly, Austrian German (a passion he shares with Karl Luick). Schendl has built a reputation for incorporating sociohistorical approaches, e.g. Schendl (1996, 1997, 2012). Presently, Schendl is teaching courses on Old English at the Department of English and American Studies in Vienna.

Professor Schendl is perhaps most widely known as an innovator in the area of historical code-switching, an area he helped found and brought to prominence from the mid-1990s. His most popular monograph is his introductory book Historical Linguistics, which appeared in 2001 in Oxford University Press' series Oxford Introductions to Language Studies, edited by H. G. Widdowson, and has been translated into a number of languages, including Chinese.

Education and Academic Career

Herbert Schendl grew up, like Herbert Penzl, in Upper Austria and studied English and French Literature and Linguistics at the University of Vienna, originally towards a teachers' degree. In 1971-74 he worked as an Assistant Professor at what is now the Vienna University of Economics and Business, before, in 1974, returning to his Alma Mater Department as Assistant Professor. His "Habilitation" (second book) on verb valency in Old English was completed in 1985, followed by professorial positions in Vienna and, in 1992, a call as Full Professor to the University of Munich, which he declined, deciding to remain as Ordinarius at the University of Vienna.

Academic philosophy and record

With an administrative record that is as distinguished as his research record, e.g. as member of the University Board of Governors ("Senat" in Austrian German), as the Dean's Committee Chair or as a member of the university-wide Arbitration Committee, Schendl has built a reputation as a scholar with university-political talents that he has used to further strengthen the position of English and English Linguistics at the University of Vienna. His efforts have been widely recognized by his peers, e.g. in a 2007 Festschrift on the occasion of his 65th birthday published by Braumüller, or a 2012 international conference on the occasion of his 70th birthday (see Conferences). Herbert Schendl's focus on excellence in teaching (see, e.g. notable students below) has contributed to furthering the international reputation of the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Vienna, which employs renowned linguists, beyond those mentioned, such as Barbara Seidlhofer, H. G. Widdowson, G. Kaltenboeck, Evelin Keizer and the late Dieter Kastovsky.

Austrian Studies in English

Herbert Schendl has been editor of Austrian Studies in English (ASE), currently with Sabine Coelsch-Foisner and Gabriella Mazzon. ASE is a book series originally founded in 1895 as Wiener Beiträge zur englischen Philologie and is one of the long-running academic publication series in the world. Austrian Studies has been a major vehicle of publication for the Vienna School, publishing works by Jakob Schipper (1895), Karl Luick (1903), or Herbert Koziol (1967). Jakob Schipper, as the founding Professor of the Vienna English Department in 1877, was also the series' first main editor. Over 105 volumes have appeared in the series, which has been published with Peter Lang since 2014.

Conferences

In February 2012, the symposium "Studying Change in the History of English: New Directions in Linguistics" (SCHENDL) was held at the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Vienna (co-organised by the School of English at Birmingham City University). On February 24-25, several national and international scholars presented their research on historical English linguistics in honour of Herbert Schendl. The presenters included Peter Trudgill, Gabriella Mazzon, Lilo Moessner, Louise Sylvester & Mark Chambers, Richard Ingham, Eva Duran Eppler & Jane Davies, Stefan Dollinger, Christian Liebl, Wilfried Wieden, Theresa Illes and Clausdirk Pollner.

Select Publications

Note: some publications are available in full-text format at https://univie.academia.edu/HerbertSchendl

Coelsch-Foisner, Sabine and Herbert Schendl (eds.) 2016. Contact and Conflict in English Studies. (Austrian Studies in English, 104). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.

Schendl, Herbert, Manfred Markus and Sabine Coelsch-Foisner (eds.) 2012. Transfer in English Studies. (Austrian Studies in English, 100). Vienna: Braumüller.

Schendl, Herbert. 2012. Middle English: language contact. In Bergs, Alexander and Laurel Brinton (eds.) Historical Linguistics of English (HSK 34.1), 505-519. Berlin: de Gruyter.

Schendl, Herbert and Laura Wright (eds.) 2011. Code-switching in  Early English. (Topics in English Linguistics, 76). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Schendl, Herbert. 2002. Mixed language texts as data and evidence in English historical linguistics. In Minkova, Donka and Robert Stockwell (eds.) Studies in the History of English: A Millennial Perspective, 51-78. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Schendl, Herbert and Nikolaus Ritt. 2002. Of vowel shifts, great, small, long and short. Language Sciences 24: 409-421.

Schendl, Herbert. 2001. Historical linguistics (Oxford Introductions to Language Study). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Schendl, Herbert. 2000. Linguistic aspects of code-switching in medieval English texts. In Trotter, D. A. (ed.) Multilingualism in Later Medieval Britain, 77-92. Martlesham: D.S. Brewer.

Schendl, Herbert. 1997. 'To London fro Kent / Sunt predia depopulantes': Code-switching and medieval English macaronic poems. Vienna English Working Papers (VIEWS) 6: 52-66.

Schendl, Herbert. 1996. The 3rd plural present indicative in Early Modern English - variation and linguistic contact. In Britton, Derek (ed.) English Historical Linguistics 1994. Papers from the 8th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics, 143-160. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Schendl, Herbert. 1992. A valency description of Old English possessive verbs. In Rissanen, Matti et al. (eds.) History of Englishes: New Methods and Interpretations in Historical Linguistics, 418-436. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Schendl, Herbert and Harald Mittermann. 1986. A Complete Concordance to the Novels of John Lyly (The Elizabethan Concordance Series 2). Hildesheim: G. Olms.

Schendl, Herbert. 1985. Untersuchungen zur Valenz altenglischer Verba. Unpublished 'Habilitationsschrift', University of Vienna. (Abstract in: English and American Studies in German 1988, Tübingen 1989, 20-22).

Schendl, Herbert. 1971. Zur Syntax der Subordination in Thomas Nashes 'The Unfortunate Traveller’ und Thomas Deloneys 'Jack of Newbury’. Unpublished Ph.D. University of Vienna.

Notable students

Anita Auer (linguist, Switzerland)

Stefan Dollinger (linguist, Canada)

Eva Duran Eppler (linguist, UK)

Julia Hüttner (linguist, UK)

Theresa Illeś (linguist, Austria)

Gunther Kaltenböck (linguist, Austria)

Christian Liebl (Phonogrammarchiv, Austria)

Ursula Lutzky (linguist, Austria)

Hans Platzer (linguist, Austria)

Ute Smit (linguist, Austria)