Waldfried Premper

Dr. Waldfried Premper is affiliated with the Institute for German Language and Literature I at the University of Cologne, where he has held teaching assignments since 2015, and also taught at the University of Münster in 2015. Previously, he served as a Research Associate at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2013-2014) and at the University of Wuppertal (2009-2013), where he was a member of Prof. Dr. Monika Rathert's research group and ZefiS (Center for Interdisciplinary Linguistic Research).

His academic journey began with studies in biology, Protestant theology, and educational science (1977-1980), followed by general linguistics, German studies, and philosophy (1980-1986) at the University of Cologne. He earned his Magister Artium in 1986 and completed his doctorate in December 2000 with a grade of magna cum laude. His doctoral work focused on Arabic syntax, as evidenced by his 2002 publication "The 'Static Clauses' of Arabic from a Typological Perspective," which was also his dissertation.

Dr. Premper's research centers on functional language typology and contrastive linguistics, cognitive linguistics and lexicology, and text linguistics and language theory. His scholarly focus demonstrates particular expertise in Arabic language structures, especially clause constructions, verb systems, and semantic aspects. He has conducted extensive comparative studies between Arabic, German, and Japanese, with special attention to perception verbs and their complements. His long-term engagement with the Cologne Universals Project since 1986 forms a cornerstone of his academic career.

His publication record spans multiple decades, with significant recent contributions including his 2018 work on circumstantial clauses in Arabic and his 2017 analysis of translatology and contrastive linguistics. His research shows consistent attention to language universals, Arabic syntax, and cross-linguistic comparison, reflecting both theoretical depth and practical linguistic analysis.

Dr. Premper has been involved with the German Research Foundation (DFG) Priority Program Language Typology, working on "Comparative Studies on the Semantics of Perception Verbs and Nominalizations" at the University of Tübingen from 1996-2000. His collaborative work with Yoshiko Ono on perception verbs demonstrates his engagement with international linguistic research.

He maintains an office at the University of Cologne (Room 3.219) with consultation hours by appointment, bookable through the RRZK scheduler since the shutdown of Phil-Services in March 2021.