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 ...

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

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

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

See also

References

External links