IN MEMORIAM. Mati Erelt

Professor Emeritus Mati Erelt, the grand old man of Estonian syntax, passed away on 12 October at the age of 83.

Mati Erelt was born on 12 March 1941 in Tallinn, Estonia. He studied at the Tallinn Polytechnical Institute and the University of Tartu, and graduated in 1965. He defended his candidate thesis (equivalent to today’s PhD) in 1971 and his doctoral thesis (equivalent to the German Habilitation), “The syntax of Estonian adjectives”, in 1981. Syntax remained his main domain of research, though he also made forays into numerous other topics in linguistics.

In 1965, he started working at the Institute of Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences (today the Institute of the Estonian Language), becoming the head of the grammar division in 1989. During this period, his working group led the compilation of the landmark publication Eesti keele grammatika (Grammar of Estonian), with the syntax volume published in 1993.

From 1991 to 1995, Mati Erelt worked as a visiting professor at the University of Helsinki and in 1995 he assumed the position of Professor of Estonian at the University of Tartu. He initiated a functional-typological approach to grammatical research and furthered connections between Estonian linguistics and the world. He promoted the creation of language corpora and corpus-based language research. He became professor emeritus in 2006 but continued work on the new Estonian grammatical description until very recently, which culminated in the publication of the newest Eesti grammatika (Grammar of Estonian, 2023), co-edited with Helle Metslang and compiling the work of fourteen authors.

Mati Erelt’s life’s work was the investigation and description of Estonian grammar; his influence can be seen in nearly all the grammatical approaches of recent decades, including textbooks and the doctoral theses of many current researchers of Estonian grammar. His role in research into Estonian, especially Estonian grammar, cannot be overstated. We treasure his memory as a deeply intelligent, broadminded and kind colleague.  

Mati Erelt’s memorial will be held on 20 October at 12:00 in the main building of the University of Tartu.