Geoffrey Sampson (born 1944) is Professor of Natural Language Computing in the Department of

Informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval. According to ACM ''Europe and'' '' Informatics Europe'', informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which t ...

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

staff bio page. He produces annotation standards for compiling

corpora Corpus is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of linguistics Music * ...

(databases) of ordinary usage of the English language. His work has been applied in automatic language-understanding software, and in writing-skills training. He has also analysed

Ronald Coase Ronald Harry Coase (; 29 December 1910 – 2 September 2013) was a British economist and author. Coase received a bachelor of commerce degree (1932) and a PhD from the London School of Economics, where he was a member of the faculty until 1951. ...

's "

theory of the firm The theory of the firm consists of a number of economic theories that explain and predict the nature of the firm, company, or corporation, including its existence, behaviour, structure, and relationship to the market. Firms are key drivers in ec ...

" and the economic and political implications of

e-business Electronic business (or "Online Business" or "e-business") is any kind of business or commercial transaction that includes sharing information across the internet. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and services between businesses, grou ...

Career

Sampson is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

, the

British Computer Society Sir Maurice Wilkes served as the first President of BCS in 1957 BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, known as the British Computer Society until 2009, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in inf ...

and the

Higher Education Academy Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) is a British charity and professional membership scheme promoting excellence in higher education. It advocates evidence-based teaching methods and awards fellowships as professional recogniti ...

.Geoffrey Sampson
personal website. He is also a Chartered Information Technology Professional. He holds three MA degrees, one each from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. After graduating from St. John's he went on to Yale, conducting research in the

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 ...

and Engineering & Applied Science departments. He was awarded a doctorate by Cambridge under the special regulations; his published work was deemed to comprise "a significant contribution to scholarship".PhD by Special Regulations
Board of Graduate Studies, Cambridge University. His academic career has included work in

Asian languages A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Tu ...

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 ...

and

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...

, with side interests in philosophy, and political and economic thought. He lectured at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

, the

University of Lancaster , mottoeng = Truth lies open to all , established = , endowment = £13.9 million , budget = £317.9 million , type = Public , city = Bailrigg, City of Lancaster , country = England , coor = , campus = Bailrigg , faculty = ...

and the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

before moving to Sussex in 1991. Sampson is widely known for academic papers criticising the linguistic nativist movement, including the arguments of proponents such as

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 ...

Jerry Fodor Jerry Alan Fodor (; April 22, 1935 – November 29, 2017) was an American philosopher and the author of many crucial works in the fields of philosophy of mind and cognitive science. His writings in these fields laid the groundwork for the modul ...

and

Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. ...

. Sampson critically engaged with Pinker's 1994 book ''

The Language Instinct ''The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language'' is a 1994 book by Steven Pinker, written for a general audience. Pinker argues that humans are born with an innate capacity for language. He deals sympathetically with Noam Chomsky's claim t ...

'', in his own book ''

The 'Language Instinct' Debate ''Educating Eve: The 'Language Instinct' Debate'' is a book by Geoffrey Sampson, providing arguments against Noam Chomsky's theory of a human instinct for (first) language acquisition. Sampson explains the original title of the book as a delibera ...

'', the first edition of which, published in 1997, was entitled ''Educating Eve''.

Political activities

Sampson is politically active and was elected to Wealden District Council in 2001, serving until 2002 with the local

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

branch. He resigned this position after he was criticised by Labour Party and

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...

ministers and councillors for publishing on his website an article, ''There's Nothing Wrong With Racism (Except the Name)'', containing a number of racist claims. The outcome was subsequently endorsed by

Conservative Central Office The Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ), formerly known as Conservative Central Office (CCO), is the headquarters of the British Conservative Party, housing its central staff and committee members, including campaign coordinators and man ...

as "in the best interests of all concerned ...the Conservative party is opposed to all forms of racial discrimination". Some time later he left the Conservative Party and in 2006 joined the

United Kingdom Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member ...

.Life
official website

Selection of publications

;Monographs * ''The Form of Language'' (

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld a ...

, 1975) * ''Liberty and Language'' (

, 1979) * ''Making Sense'' (

, 1980) * ''Schools of Linguistics: Competition and Evolution'' ( Hutchinson, 1980) * ''Writing Systems'' (Anchor Brenton Ltd., 1985) * '' Educating Eve: The 'Language Instinct' Debate'' ( Continuum, 1997) * ''Empirical Linguistics'' ( Continuum, 2001) ;Essays * "From central embedding to corpus linguistics" in ''Using Corpora for Language Research'' (

Longman Longman, also known as Pearson Longman, is a publishing company founded in London, England, in 1724 and is owned by Pearson PLC. Since 1968, Longman has been used primarily as an imprint by Pearson's Schools business. The Longman brand is also ...

, 1996) ;Articles * "What was transformational grammar?" ''

Lingua Lingua (Latin, 'tongue') may refer to: * ''Lingua'' (journal), a peer-reviewed academic journal of general linguistics * ''Lingua'' (sculpture), by Jim Sanborn * ''Lingua'' (play), a 17th-century play attributed to Thomas Tomkis * Project Ling ...

'' 48 (1979): 355–78. * "Popperian language-acquisition undefeated". ''

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science ''British Journal for the Philosophy of Science'' (''BJPS'') is a peer-reviewed, academic journal of philosophy, owned by the British Society for the Philosophy of Science (BSPS) and published by University of Chicago Press. The journal publishes ...

'' 31 (1980): 63–67. * * "Depth in English grammar". ''

Journal of Linguistics The ''Journal of Linguistics'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering all branches of theoretical linguistics and the official publication of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain. It is published by Cambridge University ...

'' 33 (1997): 131–51. * "Grammatical depth: a rejoinder". ''

Computational Linguistics Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field concerned with the computational modelling of natural language, as well as the study of appropriate computational approaches to linguistic questions. In general, computational linguistics ...

'' 25 (1999): xx–xx. * "Briefly noted – English for the computer: the SUSANNE corpus and analytic scheme". ''

'' 28 (2002): xx–xx. * "Word frequency distributions". ''

'' 28 (2002): xx–xx. * "The myth of diminishing firms". ''

Communications of the ACM ''Communications of the ACM'' is the monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). It was established in 1958, with Saul Rosen as its first managing editor. It is sent to all ACM members. Articles are intended for readers wi ...

'' 46 (2003): xx–xx. * "A test of the leaf-ancestor metric for parse accuracy" '' Natural Language Engineering'' 9 (2003): xx–xx.

ith Anna Babarczy The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediatel ...

* "Definitional, personal, and mechanical constraints on part of speech annotation performance". '' Natural Language Engineering'' 12 (2006): xx–xx. John_M_Carroll).html" ;"title="John M. Carroll (information scientist)">John M Carroll)">John M. Carroll (information scientist)">John M Carroll) ;Reviews *

, ''Words and Rules'' for ''

Times Higher Education Supplement ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

'' 12 May (2000): 22–23.

References

External links

Geoffrey Sampson
— staff bio page @ official

website
Geoffrey Sampson
— personal website * James W. Ney.
What was transformational grammar?
''

Language Sciences ''Language Sciences'' is a peer-reviewed journal published six times a year by Elsevier. The editor is Sune Vork Steffensen of the University of Southern Denmark The University of Southern Denmark ( da, Syddansk Universitet, lit=South Danish U ...

'' 9 (1987): 231–242. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sampson, George 1944 births Academics of Lancaster University Academics of the University of Leeds Academics of the University of Sussex Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Linguists Living people People educated at Bristol Grammar School UK Independence Party people Conservative Party (UK) councillors Councillors in East Sussex Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University