David Ian Beaver is a professor of linguistics and philosophy 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, 11,075 ...

, where he also directs the cognitive science program and serves as Graduate Studies Advisor of the Human Dimensions of Organizations Master's program. His work concerns the

semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy Philosophy (f ...

and

pragmatics In linguistics and related fields, pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship between the interpreter and the int ...

natural language In neuropsychology, linguistics, and philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages ...

, including, in particular, research on

presupposition In the branch of linguistics known as pragmatics, a presupposition (or PSP) is an implicit assumption about the world or background belief relating to an utterance whose truth is taken for granted in discourse. Examples of presuppositions include ...

, anaphora,

topic Topic, topics, TOPIC, topical, or topicality may refer to: Topic / Topics * Topić, a Slavic surname * ''Topics'' (Aristotle), a work by Aristotle * Topic (chocolate bar), a brand of confectionery bar * Topic (DJ), German musician * Topic (g ...

and focus.

Education and career

Beaver received a B.Sc. in 1988 from the Departments of Physics and Philosophy at the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

, an M.Sc. in 1989 from the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, and a Ph.D. in 1995 from the Centre for Cognitive Science also at the

, where his principal advisor was

Ewan Klein Ewan is an anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic name Eòghann. It is possibly a derivative of the Pictish name, ''Vuen'' (or 'Wen'), "The Warrior" or "born of the mountain". It is most common as a male given name in Scotland and Canada. It is ...

and his secondary advisor was Robin Cooper. Beaver was an assistant professor (1997-2005) and an associate professor (2005-2007) at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

before he was hired as an associate professor by the

in 2007. Beaver was promoted to full professor by UT Austin in 2011.

Research

In addition to his work in formal semantics and pragmatics, Beaver contributes to research on the social dimensions of language use, a topic of quite general interest as evidenced by a 29 October 2011 New York Times op-ed by Ben Zimmer, which discusses Beaver's work on sentiment in Arab Spring tweets.

Honors

Beaver's 2013 paper, "Toward a taxonomy of projective content," coauthored with

Judith Tonhauser Judith Tonhauser is a Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Stuttgart. Education and career Tonhauser received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from Stanford University in 2006. Her dissertation was titled ''The Temporal Semantics of No ...

Craige Roberts Craige Roberts (born February 20, 1949) is an American linguist, known for her work on pragmatics and formal semantics. Education and career Roberts earned her A.B. at Indiana University in 1979. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Ma ...

, and Mandy Simons won the 2013 Best Paper in ''Language'' (journal) Award from the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

Books

* Beaver, David. 2001
Presupposition and Assertion in Dynamic Semantics
Stanford: CSLI Publications. * Beaver, David and Brady Clark. 2008. Sense and Sensitivity: How Focus Determines Meaning. Oxford: Blackwell.

References

External links

David Beaver
at University of Texas at Austin {{DEFAULTSORT:Beaver, David Linguists from the United Kingdom Semanticists University of Texas at Austin Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Linguistic Society of America