- 2012
Wilhelm-von-Humboldt Prize of the DGfS for life's work - 2005
Honorary doctorate from the University of Leipzig - since 1998
Honorary member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities - since 1995
Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences - since 1993
Full Professor at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - 1993-1998
Vice President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities - 1993
Founding member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities - 1992-2005
Member of the Goethe-Institut and the Executive Committee of the Goethe-Institut - 1992-1996
Head of the Max Planck Working Group "Structural Grammar" at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - 1992
Honorary doctorate at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena - since 1991
Member of the Academia Europaea - 1991-1992
Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin - since 1985
External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen - 1981-1982
Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford - 1980-1991
Head of the research group Cognitive Linguistics at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR - 1979
Honorary Member of the Linguistic Society of America - 1962-1980
Staff of the Academy of Sciences - 1957-1962
Assistant at the Institute for German Language and Literature of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin - 1961
Doctorate (Dr. phil.) at the University of Leipzig - until 1961
Studied German language and literature and philosophy in Leipzig - 1930
born in Halle/Saale