Nikolaus P. Himmelmann

Prof. Dr. Nikolaus P. Himmelmann is a Full Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Cologne's Department of Linguistics, part of the Philosophical Faculty. His academic journey includes previous professorships at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and WWU Münster, and a research fellowship at the Australian National University. His research focuses on language typology, grammaticalization theory, prosody, and language documentation, particularly in Austronesian, Papuan, and Australian languages. He leads projects like the SFB 1252 on 'Prominence in Language' and has contributed to the DoBeS documentation initiative.

Education highlights include a PhD from the University of Munich and habilitation at Cologne. His work bridges theoretical linguistics with practical fieldwork, emphasizing prosodic systems and cross-linguistic comparison. Recent articles explore differential object marking, prosodic phrasing, and documentation methodologies. Awards include the Georg von der Gabelentz Award 2009 for outstanding contributions to linguistics.

Research interests span syntactic typology, prosodic analysis, and the documentation of endangered languages. His projects often involve interdisciplinary collaboration, leveraging audiovisual data mining techniques. Office hours are Tuesdays 2-4 PM, requiring prior appointment via phone.