Els Oksaar (1 October 1926 â 9 December 2015) was an Estonian-born linguist and professor of linguistics at the University of Hamburg. Her research addressed multilingualism and language contact, and included work linking language use with culturally shaped behavioral patterns. She is associated with the concept of Kulturem (âÂÂculturemeâÂÂ) in language-use research and authored work titled Kulturemtheorie.
Oksaar was born in Pärnu. She graduated from the Second Girlsâ Gymnasium in Pärnu in 1944. She studied at Stockholm University (Germanic and English philology) and also studied at the University of Bonn. She graduated from Stockholm University in 1950 and obtained a licentiate degree there in 1953. She completed her habilitation in 1958 (in semantics of German).
From 1967 to 1992, Oksaar was professor of general and comparative linguistics at the University of Hamburg. In 1967, she was appointed to a newly established chair in general and comparative linguistics at Hamburg. At Hamburg she founded and led a research centre focused on multilingualism and language contacts.
Oksaar worked in areas including semantics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, pedolinguistics, language contact and multilingualism, with a focus on intercultural communication. Her work on language use and culturally shaped behavioral patterns is commonly discussed through the Kulturem / cultureme concept, including in her Kulturemtheorie work.
Oksaar received the Konrad Duden Prize in 1991.
She was named an honorary doctor (doctor honoris causa) of the University of Tartu in 1996.
In 2001, she was awarded the Order of the White Star, 4th Class.