John R. Ross
Encyclopedia
John Robert "Haj" Ross (born May 7, 1938 in Boston
, Massachusetts
) is a linguist
who played a part in the development of generative semantics
(as opposed to interpretive semantics) along with George Lakoff
, James D. McCawley
, and Paul Postal
. Ross was a student of Bernard Bloch
, Samuel Martin and Rulon Wells at Yale University
, Zellig Harris
, Henry Hiz, Henry Hoenigswald and Franklin Southworth at the University of Pennsylvania
, and Roman Jakobson
, Noam Chomsky
, Morris Halle
, Paul Postal
, Edward Klima
and Hu Matthews at MIT.
Ross met Lakoff in 1963 and began collaborating with him especially on work by and influenced by Postal. He was a professor of linguistics at MIT from 1966–1985 and has worked in Brazil
, Singapore
and British Columbia
. He is currently at the University of North Texas
. His class offerings there include Linguistics and Literature, Syntax, Field Methods, History of English, Metaphor and Semantics; he also oversees U.N.T.'s Doctorate in Poetics program.
Ross's 1967 MIT dissertation is a landmark in syntactic
theory and documents in great detail Ross's discovery of islands. Ross is also well known for his onomastic fecundity; he has coined many new terms describing syntactic phenomena that are well-known to this day, including copula switch, Do-Gobbling, freeze(s), gapping
, heavy NP shift
, (inner) islands, myopia
, the penthouse principle
, pied piping, pruning, scrambling, siamese sentences. sluicing
, slifting, sloppy identity
, sounding
, squib
, squishes, viability
, and syntactic islands. Relating to syntactic islands, he also coined the terms "left-branch condition", "complex-np constraint", "coordinate structure constraint", and "sentential subject constraint". In phonology
, he suggested the term conspiracy to Charles Kisseberth.
Like Roman Jakobson
, Ross analyzes poetry using linguistics (see poetics
).
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
) is a linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
who played a part in the development of generative semantics
Generative semantics
Generative semantics is the name of a research program within linguistics, initiated by the work of various early students of Noam Chomsky: John R. Ross, Paul Postal and later James McCawley...
(as opposed to interpretive semantics) along with George Lakoff
George Lakoff
George P. Lakoff is an American cognitive linguist and professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1972...
, James D. McCawley
James D. McCawley
James David McCawley was an American linguist.McCawley was born James Quillan McCawley, Jr. to Dr. Monica Bateman McCawley , a physician and surgeon, and James Quillan McCawley , a businessman...
, and Paul Postal
Paul Postal
Paul Martin Postal is an American linguist and member of the faculty of New York University.Postal received his PhD from Yale University in 1963 and taught at MIT until 1965. That year, he moved to the City University of New York...
. Ross was a student of Bernard Bloch
Bernard Bloch
----Bernard Bloch, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., was an American linguist.He is one of the post-Bloomfieldian linguists.He taught at Brown University and Yale University.- Literary works :...
, Samuel Martin and Rulon Wells at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, Zellig Harris
Zellig Harris
Zellig Sabbettai Harris was a renowned American linguist, mathematical syntactician, and methodologist of science. Originally a Semiticist, he is best known for his work in structural linguistics and discourse analysis and for the discovery of transformational structure in language...
, Henry Hiz, Henry Hoenigswald and Franklin Southworth at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, and Roman Jakobson
Roman Jakobson
Roman Osipovich Jakobson was a Russian linguist and literary theorist.As a pioneer of the structural analysis of language, which became the dominant trend of twentieth-century linguistics, Jakobson was among the most influential linguists of the century...
, Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, Morris Halle
Morris Halle
Morris Halle , is a Latvian-American Jewish linguist and an Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
, Paul Postal
Paul Postal
Paul Martin Postal is an American linguist and member of the faculty of New York University.Postal received his PhD from Yale University in 1963 and taught at MIT until 1965. That year, he moved to the City University of New York...
, Edward Klima
Edward Klima
Edward S. Klima was an eminent linguist who specialized in the study of sign languages. Klima's work was heavily influenced by Noam Chomsky's then-revolutionary theory of the biological basis of linguistics, and applied that analysis to sign languages.Klima, much of whose work was in collaboration...
and Hu Matthews at MIT.
Ross met Lakoff in 1963 and began collaborating with him especially on work by and influenced by Postal. He was a professor of linguistics at MIT from 1966–1985 and has worked in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. He is currently at the University of North Texas
University of North Texas
The University of North Texas is a public institution of higher education and research in Denton. Founded in 1890, UNT is part of the University of North Texas System. As of the fall of 2010, the University of North Texas, Denton campus, had a certified enrollment of 36,067...
. His class offerings there include Linguistics and Literature, Syntax, Field Methods, History of English, Metaphor and Semantics; he also oversees U.N.T.'s Doctorate in Poetics program.
Ross's 1967 MIT dissertation is a landmark in syntactic
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
theory and documents in great detail Ross's discovery of islands. Ross is also well known for his onomastic fecundity; he has coined many new terms describing syntactic phenomena that are well-known to this day, including copula switch, Do-Gobbling, freeze(s), gapping
Gapping
Gapping is a term in linguistics that refers to clauses in which all verbal elements have been omitted, but in which internal arguments of the verb remain...
, heavy NP shift
Heavy NP shift
"Heavy NP shift" is a grammatical phenomenon where a "heavy" noun phrase appears in a position to the right of its canonical position under certain circumstances...
, (inner) islands, myopia
Myopia
Myopia , "shortsightedness" ) is a refractive defect of the eye in which collimated light produces image focus in front of the retina under conditions of accommodation. In simpler terms, myopia is a condition of the eye where the light that comes in does not directly focus on the retina but in...
, the penthouse principle
Penthouse principle
The penthouse principle, a term in syntax coined by John R. Ross in 1973, describes the fact that many syntactic phenomena treat matrix clauses differently from embedded clauses:...
, pied piping, pruning, scrambling, siamese sentences. sluicing
Sluicing
In syntax, a sluicing construction is one in which the sentential part of an interrogative clause is elided; this typically occurs only in constituent questions...
, slifting, sloppy identity
Sloppy identity
In linguistics, sloppy identity refers to cases where an ellipsis gives rise to a meaning which differs along some dimension from the strict meaning of its antecedent. Typical cases involve mismatches in person or gender features of pronouns: a...
, sounding
Sounding
Sounding generally refers to a mechanism of probing the environment by sending out some kind of stimulus. The term derives from the ancient practice of determining the depth of water by feeding out a line with a weight at the end....
, squib
Squib (linguistics)
A squib is a brief satirical or witty piece of writing or speech, though unlike a lampoon a squib uses humor to express a true fact. One issue that readers face is if all Squib's really are factual...
, squishes, viability
Viability
Viable or viability is the ability of a thing to maintain itself or recover its potentialities.Viable or viability may also refer to:...
, and syntactic islands. Relating to syntactic islands, he also coined the terms "left-branch condition", "complex-np constraint", "coordinate structure constraint", and "sentential subject constraint". In phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
, he suggested the term conspiracy to Charles Kisseberth.
Like Roman Jakobson
Roman Jakobson
Roman Osipovich Jakobson was a Russian linguist and literary theorist.As a pioneer of the structural analysis of language, which became the dominant trend of twentieth-century linguistics, Jakobson was among the most influential linguists of the century...
, Ross analyzes poetry using linguistics (see poetics
Poetics
Aristotle's Poetics is the earliest-surviving work of dramatic theory and the first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory...
).