Barbara Kenyon Abbott (born 1943) is an American
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
. She earned her
PhD in linguistics in 1976 at the
University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...
under the supervision of
George Lakoff
George Philip Lakoff (; born May 24, 1941) is an American cognitive linguistics, cognitive linguist and philosopher, best known for his thesis that people's lives are significantly influenced by the conceptual metaphors they use to explain comple ...
. From 1976 to 2006, she was a professor in the department of linguistics and
Germanic,
Slavic,
Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
, and
African language
The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families:
* Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Southern A ...
s at
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
, with a joint appointment in philosophy. She is now a Professor
Emerita.
Personal life
Abbott grew up in
Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...
and currently resides in Michigan with her husband, Larry Hauser.
Career
Abbott's research in areas of
semantics
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy
Philosophy (f ...
and
pragmatics
In linguistics and related fields, pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship between the interpreter and the int ...
examines topics in reference and noun phrase interpretation, looking at philosophically-influenced aspects of word meaning, presupposition, and conditional sentences.
She has been pivotal in both uniting formal semantics—which adapts analytical techniques from logic to natural languages—and analytical pragmatics—which clarifies the workings of definite and indefinite noun phrases in English. Her work surveying the uses of
definiteness
In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...
in different languages shows how it has mainly been seen in terms of familiarity or uniqueness. Her book ''Reference'',
focusing on noun phrases as referring expressions, shows that the issue of speakers' use of language forms to refer to entities has been at the heart of debate among linguists and philosophers for centuries.
Abbott was a professor at Michigan State University where she taught linguistics and philosophy from 1976 to 2006. Her main concentrations are
semantics
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy
Philosophy (f ...
and
pragmatics
In linguistics and related fields, pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship between the interpreter and the int ...
Her book ''Reference''
focuses on the issue of how far reference is and if it is a two-place or three-place relation. Abbott is also known for her other published works which include Natural Language Semantics, Language, Linguistics and Philosophy, Journal of Pragmatics, and Mind. She has also released a wide range of articles beginning in 1974 with an article titled ''Some Problems In Giving An Adequate Model-Theoretic Account of Cause'' to her most recent article, titled ''Some Remarks on Referentiality'', in 2011.
In 1993, Abbott received an Outstanding Faculty & Staff Award at MSU for "contributions to equal opportunities for achievement and providing an environment that encourages excellence". In 2005, she was an invited speaker at the Third International Conference in Contrastive Semantics and Pragmatics held in at the Shanghai International Studies University in China, and was featured as a guest speaker at the International Cognitive Science Conference held at Pomona College that same year. In 2009, she was an invited speaker at the Second Conference on Concept Types and Frames in Language, Cognition, and Science at the Heinrich-Heine-University of Duesseldorf. Abbott has served on the editorial board of academic journals including ''
The Journal of Pragmatics'', ''
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
''Natural Language & Linguistic Theory'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering theoretical and generative linguistics. It was established in 1983 and originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers. Since 2004 the journal is p ...
'', and ''
Intercultural Pragmatics
''Intercultural Pragmatics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published quarterly by Mouton de Gruyter. It covers both theoretical and practical aspects of pragmatics in an intercultural context, aiming at promoting discussion among researchers ...
'', as well as serving as a referee for articles in ''Philosophy of Science''
and in ''Language''.
Publications
Books
* Abbott, B. 2010. ''Reference''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
*
Gundel, Jeanette K. and Barbara Abbott, eds. 2019. ''The Oxford Handbook of Reference''. Oxford University Press.
Significant articles
*Abbott, B. 2013. Linguistic solutions to philosophical problems: The case of knowing how. In John Hawthorne & Jason Turner, eds., Philosophical Perspectives 27, 1–21.
*
Horn
Horn most often refers to:
*Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound
** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments
*Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...
, L. and B. Abbott. 2012. "(in)definiteness and implicature," In W. Kabasenche, M. O'Rourke, and M Slater (eds.) ''Reference and Referring.'' MIT Press.
* Abbott, B. 2011. "Out of control: The semantics of some infinitival VP complements, " In ''Pragmatics and Autolexical Grammar: In honor of Jerry Sadock,'' edited by Etsuyo Yuasa,
Tista Bagchi and Katharine Beals. pp. 229–242. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
* Abbott, B. 2010. “Where have some of the presuppositions gone?” ''Drawing the Boundaries of Meaning: Neo-Gricean Studies in Pragmatics and Semantics in Honor of Laurence R. Horn'', B. Birner, G. Ward (eds.) Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
* Abbott, B. 2008. “Presuppositions and Common Ground,” ''Linguistics and Philosophy.''
* Abbott, B. 2006. “Definite and Indefinite," ''Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.''
* Abbott, B. 2004. “Definiteness and Indefiniteness,” ''The Handbook of Pragmatics'', L Horn and G. Ward (eds.) Malden. MA: Blackwell.
* Abbott, B. 2003. "A reply to Szabo's "Descriptions and uniqueness," ''Philosophical Studies.''
* Abbott, B. 2003. "Some notes on quotation," ''Belgian Journal of Linguistics.''
* Abbott, B. 2002. "Definiteness and Proper Names: Some Bad News for the Description Theory," J''ournal of Semantics.''
* Abbott, B. 2002. "Donkey Demonstratives," ''Natural Language Semantics.''
* Abbott, B. 2000. “Presuppositions as nonassertions,” ''Journal of Pragmatics,'' 32: 1419–1437.
* Abbott, B. 1999. “Water = H2O." ''Mind'' 108, 145–148.
* Abbott, B. 1999. "Support for a unique theory of definiteness," ''Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistics Theory (SALT) 9.''
* Abbott, B. 1997. “A note on the nature of 'Water'." ''Mind'' 106'','' 311–319.
* Abbott, B. 1997. “Definiteness and existentials,” ''Language.''
* Abbott, B. 1996. "Doing without a partitive constraint," In J. Hoeksema (ed.) ''Partitives: Studies on the Syntax and Semantics of Partitive and Related Constructions.''
* Abbott, B. 1995. "Some remarks on specificity," ''Linguistic Inquiry 26:2, 341–7.''
* Abbott, B. 1993. “A pragmatic account of the definiteness effect in existential sentences,” ''Journal of Pragmatics 19, 39–55.''
* Abbott, B. 1976. "Right node raising as a test for constituenthood," ''Linguistic Inquiry.''
References
External links
WebsiteFaculty webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbott, Barbara
1943 births
Living people
American linguists
UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni
Michigan State University faculty
20th-century linguists
21st-century linguists
People from Greenwich, Connecticut
Women linguists