John Lyons (linguist)
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Sir John Lyons FBA (23 May 1932 12 March 2020) was a British linguist, working on
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, linguistics and comp ...
.


Education

John Lyons was born and brought up in Stretford,
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...
(now in Trafford). He was initially educated at St Ann's RC School, Stretford, before he won a scholarship to St Bede's College, Manchester, joining in September 1943. In July 1950, Lyons progressed to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he took a degree in Classics in 1953 and a Diploma in Education in 1954.


Life and career

After doing his
national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...
in the
navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
for two years, studying Russian as a coder (special), and commissioned as a midshipman, he returned to Cambridge as a PhD student in 1956. His supervisor was W. Sidney Allen. The following year he was made a lecturer at the
School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury a ...
. He was also awarded a one-year Rockefeller Scholarship to Yale, but declined for the more opportunistic academic position in linguistics that was rare in those days in Britain. Lyons moved from Cambridge to SOAS in London, where R. H. Robins was his PhD supervisor. In the summer of 1960, Lyons went to
Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...
to work in a
machine translation Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT (not to be confused with computer-aided translation, machine-aided human translation or interactive translation), is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates t ...
project; he was chosen because of his expertise in Russian and linguistics. It was at Indiana, in a post- Bloomfieldean milieu, where Lyons gave courses on general linguistics. In 1961, he returned to Christ's College, where he taught until 1964. Between 1965 and 1969, he was the founder editor of the ''
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 Pr ...
''. From 1964 to 1984, he was professor of linguistics at the universities of
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
and Sussex. He was master of
Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...
for 15 years, before retiring in 2000; he was an honorary fellow at the college. Lyons' introductory texts are ''Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics'', ''Chomsky'', ''Semantics'', and ''Linguistic Semantics''. He was the creator of a
constructed language A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction ...
called Bongo-Bongo, which he created as a teaching tool for his linguistics students. Upon retirement in 2000 he moved to France. He died on 12 March 2020.


Honours

He was knighted in 1987 "for services to the study of linguistics". In 2016, he was awarded the Neil and Saras Smith Medal for Linguistics by the
British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...
"for his outstanding lifetime contribution to the field of linguistics".


Selected works

*'' Structural Semantics'' (1963) *'' Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics'' (1968) *''
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 ...
'' (
Fontana Modern Masters The Fontana Modern Masters was a series of pocket guides on writers, philosophers, and other thinkers and theorists who shaped the intellectual landscape of the twentieth century. The first five titles were published on 12 January 1970 by Fontana ...
, 1970) *'' New Horizons in Linguistics'' (1970) (as editor) *''
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, linguistics and comp ...
'' (1977) *'' Language and Linguistics'' (1981) *'' Language, Meaning and Context'' (1981) *''New Horizons in Linguistics 2'' (1987) (as co-editor) *'' Natural Language and Universal Grammar'' (1991) *'' Linguistic Semantics: An introduction'' (1995)


See also

* Bongo-Bongo


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyons, John 1932 births 2020 deaths Academics of SOAS University of London Academics of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Constructed language creators English male writers Fellows of the British Academy Knights Bachelor Linguists from England Masters of Trinity Hall, Cambridge People educated at St Bede's College, Manchester People from Stretford Recipients of the Neil and Saras Smith Medal for Linguistics Semanticists Linguistics journal editors