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Aspects of the grammar of Tundra Yukaghir
Schmalz, M.
Publication date 2013
Link to publication
Citation for published version (APA):
Schmalz, M. (2013). Aspects of the grammar of Tundra Yukaghir.
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vii Acknowledgments
First and foremost I wish to express my gratitude to my promoters, dr. Cecilia Odé and Prof. dr. Kees Hengeveld, for their guidance and assistance.
Cecilia Odé was the mastermind behind the project and if it had not been for her, the project would simply have not been there. In fact, it is not only myself who is deeply grateful to her for getting this project going. Quite a few Yukaghirs expressed their gratitude to Cecilia in personal conversations. Along with her professional advice Cecilia gave me a lot of personal care showing genuine concern about my well being and my present and future academic destiny.
Kees Hengeveld was praised by one of his former PhD candidates as ‘a non-typical, extraordinary academic father’. I could not agree more. The academic freedom he gave me, without letting me slip into negligence, was one of the most stimulating factors while I was working on the thesis. At moments of confusion and diffidence he was the source from which I drew self-confidence enabling me to carry on undeterred. I especially value Kees’ spontaneously sharing with me linguistic facts not directly related to the topic of my thesis, making our interactions grow beyond a formal supervisor-candidate relationship and turn into an enthusiastic academic exchange of two linguists fond of their field.
I feel absolutely indebted to my language consultants, without whose help so many descriptive issues would have probably remained unresolved or poorly understood. Among them are Vasilij Nikolaevič Tret’jakov, Dar’ja Nikolaeva Kurilova, Matrena Nikolaeva Tochtosova, Akulina Innokent’evna Stručkova, Marija Nikolaevna Kurilova, Svetlana Alekseevna Atlasova, Praskov’ja Ivanovna Pavlova, Il’ja Ivanovič Kurilov, Fedora Nikolaevna Tataeva, Anastasija Semenovna Tataeva, Dmitrij Nikolaevič Begunov, Egor Il’ič Atlasov, Nikolaj Nikolaevič Kurilov and late Anna Gavrilovna Vyrdylina, the former school teacher of Tundra Yukaghir in Andryushkino. I am particularly grateful to dr. Gavril Nikolaevič Kurilov and the researchers at the Institute for Questions of Minorities of the North in Yakutsk for enlightening linguistic discussions.
I wish to thank cordially my roommates, fellow PhD candidates Brandon Costello, Ekaterina Bobyleva, Sterre Leufkens, Tessa Spätgens and especially Vadim Kimmelman for their readiness to discuss various theoretical topics with me and enrich me with their understanding as well as to alleviate my computer related illiteracy.
Special thanks go to Dirk-Jan Vet, our technician, who helped me overcome more than once an irritating technical problem and Tessa Spätgens, who kindly improved the quality of the language in the Dutch summary.
I also thank my brother, Sergej, who gave me at the last moment a brilliant idea how to convert the stubborn thesis file with just one click, freeing me thus from hours and hours of tedious manual work.
My most heartfelt thanks are to my wife, who supported me in many ways while I was engaged in the project. Among other things, she advised me on the proper use of English and expressing ideas in a concise way. She assisted me in formatting the text and indulged in fruitful discussions about aspects of the thesis. Apart from that she was simply there for me, even when I was away on field trips. Thus, as the poet said, ‘Grazie
