Tanya Reinhart, 1943 - 2007

Tanya Reinhart died suddenly near New York City on March 17, 2007. She taught at Utrecht University, at New York University as a Global Distinguished Professor in Linguistics, and had taught for many years at Tel Aviv University.

Tanya joined the NYU Linguistics Department as a Global Distinguished Professor in January of 2007, and immediately immersed herself in all aspects of department life, as an undergraduate teacher, as a graduate student teacher and mentor, and as a colleague. We will miss her greatly.

Global Distinguished Professor in Linguistics at NYU.
Tanya Reinhart's web page from Utrecht
Tanya Reinhart's web page at Tel Aviv University
New York Times obituary
Memorial page at MIT
Linguist List announcement of the death of Tanya Reinhart
The Wikipedia article for Tanya Reinhart
View Tanya Reinhart's dissertation
Obituary by Noam Chomsky
SALT 17, at UConn, is dedicated to the memory of Tanya Reinhart.
A remembrance at semantics etc.

Photo courtesy of David Mariuz.

From Mark Baltin (NYU):

I just thought that I would write a few words about Tanya Reinhart, who started a recurring appointment in our department this semester, knowing that many in the Department didn't know Tanya or her work. Tanya and I overlapped as graduate students at MIT, although she graduated two years before I did. Her tragic sudden death this week was truly a shock, and just about anybody's passing is tragic, but this is a somewhat personal recollection.

She was known as one of the most influential theoretical linguists in the world, with outstanding, insightful, imaginative analyses of anaphora, quantifier scope, and focus. Her primary interest was in the balance of power between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Tanya had a knack for knowing what an interesting question was in language, and how to go about answering it. I had been reading her book "Interface Strategies", published last year by MIT Press, and the book really exemplified her deep interest in "the big questions", and she had worked herself in language acquisition over the years to answer questions about anaphora. The book also showed an exploration of processing issues as a source of insight about language itself.

She was also active in the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, having written a book on the subject, and being otherwise active in trying to push for a just and peaceful solution to this on-going conflict. I think that this side of Tanya unified with her linguistic pursuits, in that in both, she looked at the important issues. Knowing Tanya, she loved the world of ideas, and was an avid inhabitant of that world. I will truly miss her presence, and can remember the last time that she and I got together to talk about linguistics. She eagerly grabbed onto any idea, and pursued it, even when we disagreed. It was a true pleasure to deal with somebody who had such an alive mind, and that is why I take this particular death to be such a tragedy.