David Gil (born November 1, 1953 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, United Kingdom) is a linguist specializing in Indonesian and Malay linguistics. His research interests include

Malayic The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family. The most prominent member is Malay, which is the national language of Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia; it further serves as basis for Indon ...

comparative linguistics Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness ...

, syntax, semantics,

linguistic typology Linguistic typology (or language typology) is a field of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their structural features to allow their comparison. Its aim is to describe and explain the structural diversity and the co ...

, and

language evolution Evolutionary linguistics or Darwinian linguistics is a sociobiological approach to the study of language. Evolutionary linguists consider linguistics as a subfield of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology. The approach is also closely linked ...

Education

In 1972, he received a B.A. in mathematics at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. He completed his master's degree in linguistics in 1978 at the

University of Tel Aviv Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

. In 1982, he defended his PhD thesis ''Distributive Numerals'' at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

.CV

Publications

* ''Riau Indonesian: A Language without Reference and Predication?'' (1999) * ''Colloquial Indonesian Dialects: How Real Are They?'' (2003) * ''The World Atlas of Language Structures'' (2005) * ''What is

Riau Indonesian Riau is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the central eastern coast of Sumatra along the Strait of Malacca. The province shares land borders with North Sumatra to the northwest, West Sumatra to the west, and Jambi to the south. Acco ...

?'' (2009) * ''Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable'' (2009)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gil, David 1953 births Living people Linguists of Austronesian languages Linguists of Papuan languages Linguists from the United Kingdom Scientists from London Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Tel Aviv University alumni Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Linguists of Malay University of California, Los Angeles alumni