Rik Smits

Reinier Johannes Charles "Rik" Smits (born 1953 in The Hague) is a Dutch linguist, author, translator and editor with a wide range of interests.

As a linguist he specialized in generative syntax, taking a PhD in General Linguistics in 1989. From then on, he mainly pursued a writing career, informing the general public on linguistic matters theoretical and practical. Apart from linguistics, he published hundreds of articles and interviews on subjects like the brain, ICT and its ramifications, modern media, intellectual property, freedom of speech, copyright and other fundamental rights, history, ethics and politics.

Smits published books on subjects ranging from language via handedness and laterality to history and French cuisine, mostly in Dutch. Books in English comprise The Puzzle of Left-handedness, which deals with the cultural, biological and evolutionary aspects of human handedness and the notions of left, right and symmetry in biology, psychology, art and life in general, and the above-mentioned Dawn, the Origins of Language and the Modern Human Mind, an inquiry into why, how and when the human language faculty - and with it the truly modern mind - developed. For the earlier Dutch version of this book he won the LOT-award 2010. Smits shows that human language is not only truly human, representing a clear and fundamental break between "us" and the animal kingdom, and that it could not have arisen for communicative purposes - that came later.

From 2008-2015 he was the editor of De Republikein (The Republican), a quarterly on modern constitutional democracy and citizenship.

Translations include Simon Goldhill's Love, Sex and Tragedy; how the Ancient World Shapes our Lives (Liefde, seks en tragedie; hoe de oudheid ons heeft gevormd, Nieuw Amsterdam, 2012), Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard's Killing Kennedy; the End of Camelot (Killing Kennedy, het einde van een droom, Nieuw Amsterdam, 2012) and Litter; how other People's Rubbish Shapes our Lives (Andermans rotzooi, Nieuw Amsterdam, 2012) by Theodore Dalrymple.

Books Title Publisher/year Genre Notes The Art of Verbal Welfare Reaktion Books Culture, sociology In preparation Dawn: The Origins of Language and the Modern Human Mind Transaction Publishers, 2016 Science The Puzzle of Left-Handedness Reaktion Books/University of Chicago Press, 2011 Science Eurogrammar 1: The Relative and Cleft Constructions of the Germanic and Romance Language Foris/Walter de Gruyter, 1989 Doctoral Thesis In Dutch Rebellen, Een dwarse geschiedenis van 200 jaar Nederland Nieuw Amsterdam, 2013 History Het raadsel van linkshandigheid Nieuw Amsterdam, 2010 Science Dageraad, Hoe taal de mens maakte Nieuw Amsterdam, 2009 SBN 978-90-468-0389-9 Science Handboek Nederlands Bijleveld, 2004 Language with Liesbeth Koenen E-mail etiquette Podium, 2000 Language with Liesbeth Koenen La Carte, Tafelwoordenboek voor de Franse Keuken Atlas, 1997 / Podium, 2002 Travel, food App iOS/Android De Keuken van Argus Atlas, 1996 Journalism with Liesbeth Koenen and Mans Kuipers Basishandleiding Nederlands Bijleveld, 1995-2004 Language with Liesbeth Koenen De Linkshandige Picador Nijgh & Van Ditmar, 1993 Science Cultureel Woordenboek Anthos, 1992/2003 Language with Liesbeth Koenen Peptalk - Engels Woordgebruik in de Nederlandse Taal Nijgh & Van Ditmar, 1992 Language with Liesbeth Koenen