Net Koene

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Over the past decades, Netta "Net" Frederika Koene (born 1946 in Heemstede, Netherlands), independent linguist and philosopher, has developed a theory within the field of empirical semantics that starts from the forms of language recognized in the speaker's sequence of sounds. These include systematic choices in intonation and rhythm that allow for a multiplication of combinations. The theory aims to get hold of each of these forms' systematic contributions to the hearer's understanding. Basic assumptions are made about the brain and its mind. With his sounds, the speaker takes remote control over the mechanisms of the hearer's brain that was evolved to make the world take shape around him, form by form, fragment by fragment, calling it up as-if-there in the hearer's awareness. Logical forms (e.g. "scope of negation") have no role in the process.

Koene presented her theory for the first time in her Academic Dissertation (University of Amsterdam, 1984) (promotor prof. R. Bartsch). A more detailed presentation can be found in her recent book "The Shape of Information" (Nodus Publikationen, Münster/Germany, 2007).

Net Koene lives in Amsterdam and is married with two children.

[edit] Publications

• De eigen systematiek van de natuurlijke taal. Dissertation UvA 1984, summary in English.
• Form and interpretation. A one to four relation. In: Theoretical Linguistics 14,S. 1-33, 1988.
• Ambiguity: syntactic and prosodic form in empirical semantics. In: R. Bartsch, J. van Benthem, P. van Emde Boas (Hrsg.), Semantics and Contextual Expression, S.57-73, Dordrecht Foris 1989.
• The shape of information, how language gets hold of the world. Nodus Publikationen 2007. ISBN 978-3-89323-533-9 (serie Vrije Universiteit Neerlandistiek) .

[edit] External Links

• Net Koene's website, containing a summary of her theory, including sound contours for demonstration.