Michael K. Brame (January 27, 1944 — August 16, 2010) was an American linguist and professor at the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...
, and founding editor of the peer-reviewed research journal, ''Linguistic Analysis''. He was known for his theory of
recursive categorical syntax. He also co-authored with his wife, Galina Popova, several books on the
identity of the writer who used the pseudonym "
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
".
Early life and education
Michael Brame was born on January 27, 1944 in
San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
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.
Brame started his study of linguistics at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...
, receiving his BA in 1966. That summer he studied
Egyptian Arabic
Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and ...
at the
American University of Cairo
The American University in Cairo (AUC; ar, الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة, Al-Jāmi‘a al-’Amrīkiyya bi-l-Qāhira) is a private research university in Cairo, Egypt. The university offers American-style learning programs ...
. That fall, Brame began a PhD program 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 ...
, studying under
Morris Halle
Morris Halle (; July 23, 1923 – April 2, 2018) was a Latvian-born Jewish American linguist who was an Institute Professor, and later professor emeritus, of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The father of "modern phonolo ...
and
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...
, who was his adviser. He received his PhD in 1970 or 1971. His dissertation was titled ''Arabic Phonology: Implications for Phonological Theory and Historical Semitic''.
Brame was a Fulbright scholar (Netherlands, 1973-1974).
Michael Brame
at ''Fulbright Scholar Directory''.
Recursive categorical syntax
Brame developed an algebra
Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics.
Elementary ...
ic theory of syntax, recursive categorical syntax, also sometimes called algebraic syntax, as an alternative to transformational-generative grammar. It is a type of dependency grammar, and is related to link grammar
Link grammar (LG) is a theory of syntax by Davy Temperley and Daniel Sleator which builds relations between pairs of words, rather than constructing constituents in a phrase structure hierarchy. Link grammar is similar to dependency grammar, but d ...
s.
Brame formulated an algebra
Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics.
Elementary ...
, (technically a non-associative groupoid
In mathematics, especially in category theory and homotopy theory, a groupoid (less often Brandt groupoid or virtual group) generalises the notion of group in several equivalent ways. A groupoid can be seen as a:
*'' Group'' with a partial func ...
with inverses) of lexical item
In lexicography, a lexical item is a single word, a part of a word, or a chain of words ( catena) that forms the basic elements of a language's lexicon (≈ vocabulary). Examples are ''cat'', ''traffic light'', ''take care of'', ''by the way ...
s (words and phrases), or lexes for short. A lex is a string representation of a word or idiomatic phrase together with a notation specifying what other word classes can bond with the string and in which order.
''Shakespeare's Fingerprints''
In 2002, Brame co-authored with his wife Galina Popova a book titled ''Shakespeare's Fingerprints''. Over the next two years, they would publish three more books on the topic.
Personal life
Brame was married to Galina Popova.
Bibliography
Dissertation
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Books
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;On Shakespeare
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Selected articles
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;Recursive categorical syntax
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See also
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References
Citations
Works cited
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brame, Michael
1944 births
2010 deaths
20th-century linguists
Dependency grammar
Grammar frameworks
Linguists from the United States
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
People from San Antonio
Shakespeare authorship theorists
University of Texas at Austin alumni
University of Washington faculty