- since 2004: Advisory Board ZAS, Berlin
- 1991-2002: Speaker of the Sonderforschungsbereich SFB 282 Theory of the Lexicon, Düsseldorf
- 1991-92: Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Studies), Berlin
- 1977-92: Member of the Fachbeirat MPI for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
- 1978-80: The first president of the German Society of Linguistics (DGfS)
- 1973-2002: Chair in General Linguistics, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
- 1970-73: Professor for Germanic Linguistics, Free University Berlin
- 1969: Doctoral dissertation on tense and time reference in German, Technical University Berlin
- 1964-65: Physicist in a nuclear reactor company near Cologne
- 1964: Diploma in Nuclear Physics, University of Hamburg
- 1955-59: Studies in Jena and Leipzig
- 1955: Abitur in Seebad Heringsdorf (Usedom, former GDR)
- 1937: born in Rostock
Books: Arbeitsbuch Semantik 1980, Foundations of Linguistics 1979, Studien zur Sprechakttheorie 1976, Grundlagen der Linguistik 1974
Editor of several books, handbooks and series: Advances in the Theory of the Lexicon 2006, Lexicon in Focus 2000, Handbuch Semantik 1991, Handbuch Lexikologie 1985, Wissenschaftstheorie der Linguistik 1976, Linguistische Pragmatik 1972, Thema: Sprache for secondary schools
Guest professor in Denmark, Norway, France, Hungary, Portugal, England, Czechia, Japan, China, USA
