Orrin "Rob" Robinson

Professor of German Studies and
Director of Introduction to the Humanities Program

Building 260, Room 251
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2030
Phone: 650 723 0413
Fax: 650 725 8421
Email: owr@stanford.edu

I returned to the Farm after getting my Ph.D. in 1972 and teaching in the Berkeley German department for a year. I have conducted research in a number of different areas in general and also in Germanic linguistics, with works on theoretical phonology (the formal structure of sound systems), the history and dialectology of various of the Germanic languages, and Old High German syntax.In addition, my recent interests include the question of exactly what data count as data when one is describing the language known as Modern "Standard" German.Among my recent publications are the books Old English and Its Closest Relatives (Stanford University Press, 1992), Clause Subordination and Verb Placement in the Old High German Isidor Translation (C. Winter,1997), and Whose German?: The ach/ich alternation and related phenomena in standard and colloquial (Benjamins, 2001)

Interests

Historical Germanic and German linguistics
Old High German Syntax
German dialectology
Modern German phonology

Education

1972 Ph.D. (Linguistics) from Cornell University
1968 B.A. from Stanford University

Current courses

Aut GERLIT 158/258. German Dialect
Aut GERLIT 159. Reading Dutch
Win GERLIT 254. Old Saxon
Spr GERLIT 123N. The Brothers Grimm and Their Fairy Tales

Previous courses

38A./138. Introduction to Germanic Languages
123N. The Brothers Grimm and Their Fairy Tales
158/258. German Dialects
203. History of the German Language
255. Middle High German
256. Old High German

Note: German 123N, although a Freshman Seminar, is not restricted to
frosh (though they have priority). This class will be taught in German, with
readings (mostly fairy tales) also in German. In my lectures and our discussions I would like to address questions such as: Who were Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm? In what cultural context did they collect their fairy tales? Who did they get them from? How have the tales been received in different cultures and at different times? Do they push any specific values ("the moral of the story is ...")? How have they served or not served the interests of the German state(s) in the present and past? We will also be looking at possible interpretations from different theoretical perspectives (feminist,
psycho-analytic, etc.). Requirements for the course include the writing of five (short) papers in German and participation in small-scale dramatizations of the fairy tales.

Selected publications

Old English and its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages (Stanford University Press 1992) (paperback edition 1993)

Clause Subordination and Verb Placement in the Old High German Isidor Translation, (Universitaetsverlag C. Winter, Heidelberg, 1996)

Whose German?: The ach/ich alternation and related phenomena in standard and colloquial (Benjamins, Amsterdam, 2001)

(edited) Studies in Dutch Phonology (with Zonneveld and van Coetsem), (The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1980)

(article)"Abstract phonology and the history of umlaut", Lingua 37 (1975):1-29

(article)"A 'scattered' rule in Swiss German", Language 52(1976):148-162

(article)"'Upside-down' Phonology", Language 53(1977):1-20 (with Leben)

(article)"Abductive change in a parsing model of phonology", Lingua 46(1978):329-338

(article) "Rule ordering in a parsing model of phonology", Communication and Cognition 11(1978):405-425. Also in Goyvaerts ed.) Phonology in the 1980's , Ghent, Story-Scientia, 1981:555-575

(article) "Causes, Conjectures and Conjunctions in Early Old High German Translations", Beitraege zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache und Literatur 115 (1993):1-29

(article) "Verb-First Position in the Old High German Isidor Translation", Journal of English and Germanic Philology 93 (1994):356-373

(dictionary article)'German Language' in Dictionary of the Middle Ages, New York, Scribner's, 1985:425-427

(encyclopedia article) 'Upside-down Phonology', in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1994.

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

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