Hans C. Boas

Hans C. Boas is a Professor and Raymond Dickson, Alton C. Allen, and Dillon Anderson Centennial Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, affiliated with the College of Liberal Arts. He directs the Texas German Dialect Project and holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Linguistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Research Interests: His work focuses on syntax, semantics, and computational lexicography with a contrastive English/German perspective. He explores argument structure constructions, Frame Semantics, and Corpus Linguistics. A key project involves applying FrameNet methodology to create a 'Constructicon.' He also studies language contact, endangered dialects (e.g., Texas German), and multilingual semantic frameworks.

Awards:

• 2011 Leonard Bloomfield Book Award for The Life and Death of Texas German
• 2010 Humboldt Fellowship for research on multilingualism
• 2007 Hugo-Moser Prize for Texas German documentation

Teaching & Leadership: Teaches courses in German linguistics, frame semantics, and language contact. Oversees the Texas German Dialect Archive, documenting over 600 speakers. Collaborates internationally on multilingual semantic frameworks and endangered language preservation.

Labs/Projects: Leads the Texas German Dialect Project, developing tools for dialect documentation and analysis. Co-designs German FrameNet and multilingual representation systems for computational linguistics applications.