斯特凡·穆勒在柏林洪堡大学和爱丁堡大学学习计算机科学、计算语言学和语言学。他先后在萨尔兰大学人工智能德语研究中心和Interice公司工作。他曾任耶拿弗里德里希大学德语与计算语言学系和波茨坦大学理论计算语言学系的执行主任。他在不来梅大学任理论语言学和计算语言学助理教授,之后在柏林自由大学担任德语与普通语言学教授。现任柏林洪堡大学德语语言学(特别是句法学)教授。
他的主要研究方向是德语语法,并采用经验主义和理性主义相结合的研究思路。研究兴趣包括形态学、句法学、语义学和信息结构。他的大部分著作是关于德语的,但是他也研究其他语言,如现代汉语、丹麦语、马耳他语和波斯语。理论方面的工作主要基于中心语驱动的短语结构语法(HPSG),而且这些理论上的分析都通过计算机可处理的语法片段来实现。这些语法片段属于一个使用共同核心的核心语法工程。他的一个研究目标就是理解语言,并且找到语言的共性,以及某些特定的语言类型具有的共同点。
Stefan Müller studied Computer Science, Computational Linguistics and Linguistics at the Humboldt University at Berlin and in Edinburgh. He worked at the German Research Center of Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Saarbrücken and for the company Interice. He worked as acting chair for German and Computational Linguistics in Jena and for Theoretical Computational Linguistics in Potsdam. He had an assistant professorship in Bremen for theoretical linguistics and computational linguistics, a full professorship for German and General Linguistics at the Freie Universität Berlin and is now professor for German language with specialization in syntax at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
His main research topic is German grammar. He works both empirically and theoretically. Topics of interest are morphology, syntax, semantics, and information structure. He published mainly about German, but he also works on other languages as for instance Mandarin Chinese, Danish, Maltese, and Persian. The theoretical work is carried out in the framework of Head- Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) and the theoretical analyses are implemented in computer- processable grammar fragments. The grammar fragments that are implemented in the CoreGram Project use a common core. One goal of his research is to understand language and to find out what languages in general and certain language classes in particular have in common.