Paul Kay (born 1934 in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
) is an
emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
of
linguistics
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 ...
at the
University of California, 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 u ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. He joined the University in 1966 as a member of the Department of
Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
, transferring to the Department of Linguistics in 1982 and now working at the
International Computer Science Institute (ICSI). He is best known for his work with anthropologist
Brent Berlin
Overton Brent Berlin (born 1936) is an American anthropologist, most noted for his work with linguist Paul Kay on color, and his ethnobiological research among the Maya of Chiapas, Mexico.
He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 196 ...
on colour: ''
Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution'' (1969) . More recently, he has worked in the area of
Construction Grammar
Construction grammar (often abbreviated CxG) is a family of theories within the field of cognitive linguistics which posit that constructions, or learned pairings of linguistic patterns with meanings, are the fundamental building blocks of human ...
with
Charles J. Fillmore
Charles J. Fillmore (August 9, 1929 – February 13, 2014) was an American linguist and Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Michigan in 1961. Fillmore sp ...
, authoring the textbook ''Construction Grammar'' (1996 manuscript). He is currently working on an extension of Construction Grammar called Sign-Based Construction Grammar, authoring a book on this topic with
Charles J. Fillmore
Charles J. Fillmore (August 9, 1929 – February 13, 2014) was an American linguist and Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Michigan in 1961. Fillmore sp ...
,
Ivan Sag
Ivan Andrew Sag (November 9, 1949 – September 10, 2013) was an American linguist and cognitive scientist. He did research in areas of syntax and semantics as well as work in computational linguistics.
Personal life
Born in Alliance, Ohio on N ...
and
Laura Michaelis.
Since 2005 Kay has returned to experimental testing of the
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
The hypothesis of linguistic relativity, also known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis , the Whorf hypothesis, or Whorfianism, is a principle suggesting that the structure of a language affects its speakers' worldview or cognition, and thus people ...
and his findings show that taking into account
brain lateralization
A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...
allows another perspective on the debate. More specifically he proposed that "Whorf hypothesis is supported in the right visual field but not the left".
[
Gilbert AL, Regier T, Kay P, Ivry RB, ''Whorf hypothesis is supported in the right visual field but not the left'', Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci 2006 January 10; 103(2): 489–494. ]
PNAS
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0509868103
See also
*
Lazarus Geiger
Lazarus Geiger (21 May 1829 – 29 August 1870) was a German-Jewish philosopher and philologist.
Life
He was born at Frankfurt-on-Main, was destined to commerce, but soon gave himself up to scholarship and studied at Marburg, Bonn and Heidelberg. ...
References
External links
Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kay, Paul
1934 births
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Living people
Linguists from the United States
University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty
Fellows of the Cognitive Science Society