Irit Meir was born in Jerusalem, Israel on August 18, 1957. Her interests and experiences were multi-faceted, but there was a coherent core that radiated throughout her life. Two of Irit’s central traits interacted so intimately that they were sometimes indistinguishable from each other: the scientific pursuit of knowledge about the nature of human language, and a profound, instinctive, and empathic engagement with other human beings. After completing her MA in English Linguistics summa cum laude at Hebrew University in the late 1980s, Irit spent a few years in the United States with husband Ronny, enjoying time with their three small daughters. Although she excelled in her studies, spoke several languages, and came from a prominent academic family, Irit didn’t immediately find burning interest in a field of study that would justify devoting a career to academic pursuits. That is, until she bumped into sign language. It was a book she came across, What the Hands Reveal about the Brain by Poizner, Klima, and Bellugi, that changed everything. Her first step in what was to become a rich career was to enroll in an American Sign Language course in Los Angeles. Irit and I had previously taken a semantics course together as MA students at Hebrew University, where I had given a student presentation about sign language. Years later now—this was around 1990—newly fascinated with the importance of sign language to the understanding of language generally, and ready to return to Israel with her family, Irit wrote to me, then a junior faculty member at the University of Haifa. She asked if I needed a research assistant. I promptly applied for and received my first research grant ever; Irit joined me

中文翻译：

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Irit Meir：讣告

Irit Meir 于 1957 年 8 月 18 日出生在以色列耶路撒冷。她的兴趣和经历是多方面的，但有一个贯穿她一生的连贯核心。Irit 的两个核心特征相互作用得如此密切，以至于有时彼此难以区分：对人类语言本质知识的科学追求，以及与其他人的深刻、本能和同理心的接触。在 1980 年代末以优异成绩完成希伯来大学英语语言学硕士学位后，Irit 与丈夫 Ronny 在美国度过了几年，与他们的三个小女儿共度时光。尽管她学习成绩优异，会说多种语言，并且出身显赫的学术家庭，Irit 并没有立即对一个可以证明将职业生涯用于学术追求的研究领域产生浓厚的兴趣。也就是说，直到她碰到了手语。她偶然看到的一本书，Poizner、Klima 和 Bellugi 的手揭示了大脑，改变了一切。她成为富有职业生涯的第一步是参加洛杉矶的美国手语课程。Irit 和我之前作为希伯来大学的硕士生一起上过语义学课程，在那里我给学生做了一个关于手语的演讲。几年后的现在——大约是 1990 年——伊瑞特对手语对理解语言的重要性的新着迷，并准备与家人返回以色列，写信给我，当时海法大学的一名初级教员。她问我是否需要一个研究助理。我立即申请并收到了我的第一笔研究资助；Irit加入了我