Remarks on the Ongoing Relevance of the Work of Ulrich Engel

Abstract

With his publications on German grammar, on verb valency and on contrastive linguistics, Ulrich Engel has had a great impact on international German linguistics. It is less well known that his work has also influenced other sub-disciplines of linguistics, which still benefit from it today. Dependential approaches now play a central role in machine syntax analysis, and Engel’s work has also left its mark on the development of machine translation systems. The development of language resources in the form of “tree banks” can fall back on Engel’s grammar conception, and there are also clear references to the newly flourishing construction grammar. In this article, these lesser-known influences of Engel’s work on other areas are presented and their ongoing relevance is acknowledged.