Simon Dik took a degree in classical language. His PhD dissertation was done under the supervision of Anton Reichling, and after it he became chair of general linguistics in Amsterdam at only 28 years old, which was a point of discussion. During the 70s and 80s he worked on formulating his theory of functional grammar, including various discussions with proponents of
generative grammar which formed a big part of linguistics departments in the Netherlands. He was the supervisor of
Kees Hengeveld who then became his closest collaborator, and helped part II of
The theory of functional grammar materialize as Dik fell ill in 1992. Dik was elected a member of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1986. ==Selected publications==