Richard Coates (born 16 April 1949, in
Grimsby
Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of L ...
, Lincolnshire, and educated at
Wintringham School
Oasis Academy Wintringham is a secondary school (academy) on Weelsby Avenue in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, England. It is just off the A16 road (England), A16 Peaks Parkway just south-west of the A46 road, A46 crossroads next to the Lisle ...
) is an English linguist. He was Professor 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. Ling ...
(alternatively Professor of
Onomastics) at the
University of the West of England, Bristol, now emeritus. From 1977 to 2006 he taught at the
University of Sussex, where he served as Professor of Linguistics (1991–2006) and as Dean of the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences (1998–2003). From 1980 to 1989 he was assistant secretary and then secretary of the
Linguistics Association of Great Britain. He was honorary director of the
Survey of English Place-Names from 2003 to 2019, having previously (1997–2002) served as president of the
English Place-Name Society which conducts the Survey, resuming this role in 2019. From 2002 to 2008, he was secretary of the
International Council of Onomastic Sciences, a body devoted to the promotion of the study of names, and elected as one of its two vice-presidents from 2011 to 2017. He was elected a fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries in 1992 and of the
Royal Society of Arts in 2001.
His main academic interests are proper names (both from the historical and the theoretical perspective),
historical linguistics
Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include:
# to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages
# ...
in general, the
philology of the
Germanic,
Romance and
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foo ...
languages, regional variation in language, and
local history. He is editor of the Survey of English Place-Names for
Hampshire and was principal investigator of the
AHRC-funded project Family Names of the United Kingdom (FaNUK), running from 2010 to 2016, of which
Patrick Hanks was lead researcher.
He has written books on the names of the
Channel Islands, the local place-names of
St Kilda, Hampshire and
Sussex, the dialect of Sussex, and, with
Andrew Breeze, on Celtic place-names in England, as well as over 500 academic articles, notes, and collections on related topics. His main contribution to linguistic theory is The Pragmatic Theory of Properhood, set out in a number of articles since 2000.
He is also the author of ''Word Structure'', a students' introduction to
linguistic morphology (Routledge), and of online resources on
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 ...
's character-names and on the place-names of
Hayling Island
Hayling Island is an island off the south coast of England, in the borough of Havant in the county of Hampshire, east of Portsmouth.
History
An Iron Age shrine in the north of Hayling Island was later developed into a Roman temple in the 1s ...
.
See also
*
Etymology of London
The name of London is derived from a word first attested, in Latinised form, as '' Londinium''. By the first century CE, this was a commercial centre in Roman Britain.
The etymology of the name is uncertain. There is a long history of mythi ...
Books, dissertations and selected other freestanding publications
1977 The status of rules in historical phonology. Doctoral dissertation 10301, University of Cambridge.
npublished.
1987 (co-ed. with John Lyons, Margaret Deuchar and Gerald Gazdar) ''New horizons in linguistics 2.'' Harmondsworth: Pelican; pp. viii + 465 ().
1988 ''Toponymic topics: essays on the early toponymy of the British Isles.'' Brighton: Younsmere Press; pp. v + 124 ().
1989 ''The place-names of Hampshire.'' London: Batsford; pp. vii + 193 ().
1990 ''The place-names of St Kilda: nomina hirtensia.''
Lewiston, New York:
Edwin Mellen Press ( Celtic Studies 1); pp. viii + 221 ().
1991 ''The ancient and modern names of the Channel Islands: a linguistic history.'' Stamford: Paul Watkins; pp. xiv + 144 ().
1992 (ed.) ''De A.B.C. psalms by Jim Cladpole (James Richards).'' Brighton: Younsmere Press; pp. 46 ().
1993 ''Hampshire place-names.'' Southampton: Ensign Publications. Paperback edition of ''The place-names of Hampshire''; pp. 193 ().
1996–2007 (ed.) ''Locus focus: forum of the Sussex place-names net'' (7 vols, 14 issues).
1999 ''The place-names of West Thorney.'' Nottingham: English Place-Name Society (supplementary series 1); pp. v + 64 ().
1999 ''Word structure.'' London and New York: Routledge (Routledge Language Workbooks); pp. ix + 101 ().
tudent guide to morphology. Also available as an e-book from 2005.
2000 (with
Andrew Breeze; including a contribution by David Horovitz) ''Celtic voices, English places: studies of the Celtic impact on place-names in England.'' Stamford: Shaun Tyas; pp. xiv + 433 ().
2006 (guest ed.) ''Name theory.'' Special issue of ''Onoma'', vol. 41 (spine date 2006; appeared 2011); pp. 309 (, eISSN 1783-1644).
2007 ''The place-names of Hayling Island, Hampshire.''
S. of 1991. Web-publication; http://www.uwe.ac.uk/hlss/llas/staff_coates_r_hayling.doc; pp. 96.
2010 ''A place-name history of the parishes of Rottingdean and Ovingdean in Sussex (including Woodingdean and Saltdean).'' Nottingham: English Place-Name Society (Regional series 2); pp. xviii + 222, .
ublished with the aid of a grant from the British Academy.
2010 ''The traditional dialect of Sussex: a history, description, selected texts, bibliography and discography.'' Lewes: Pomegranate Press; pp. 349. (.)
ublished with the aid of a grant from the Marc Fitch Fund.
2016 (co-ed. with Patrick Hanks and Peter McClure) ''The Oxford dictionary of family names in the United Kingdom.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. (; also ebook and online versions.)
2017 ''Wilkins of Westbury and Redland: the life and writings of the Rev. Dr Henry John Wilkins (1865-1941).'' Bristol: Avon Local History Association pamphlet 24.
2017 ''Your city's place-names: Brighton and Hove.'' Nottingham: English Place-Name Society. (.)
2017 ''Your city's place-names: Bristol.'' Nottingham: English Place-Name Society. (.)
2018 (guest ed. with Katalin Reszegi) ''Onomastica Uralica'' 11. (, .)
2019 ''Places, names and history in north-west Bristol: Shirehampton, Avonmouth and King’s Weston.'' Bristol: Bristol Centre for Linguistics, University of the West of England.
2019 ''Your city's place-names: Cambridge.'' Nottingham: English Place-Name Society.
2020 (co-ed. with Luisa Caiazzo and
Maoz Azaryahu) ''Naming, identity and tourism.'' Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. (, .)
2020 (guest co-ed. with Martyna Gibka) ''Explorations in literary onomastic theory.'' Special issue of ''Onoma'', vol. 53 (spine date 2018; to appear 2020).
External links
University of the West of England: Richard Coates, where a list of his main recent publications can be found.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coates, Richard
Living people
Academics of the University of the West of England, Bristol
Academics of the University of Sussex
1949 births
Toponymists
English toponymy
Linguists from England
20th-century linguists
21st-century linguists
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London