William Foley (linguist)

William Foley Auguste (* April 21, 1949 in the U.S.) is a teaching in Australia University Professors of Linguistics at the University of Sydney. Foley is regarded as a leading exponent in the description of languages ​​in the Pacific Ocean. He is co-founder of Role and Reference Grammar and is considered an expert of the languages ​​of Papua New Guinea.

Career

Foley studied in the 1970s at the University of California, Berkeley, Linguistics at Charles J. Fillmore, Larry M. Hyman and Alton L. Becker and earned his Ph.D. in 1976 with a syntactic analysis of the Austronesian languages. After graduation he taught from 1976 to 1988 as a professor at the Australian National University in Canberra and is since 1988 professor of linguistics at the University of Sydney.

Grammatical theory

Foley designed by Robert D. Van Valin Jr. a novel theory. The syntax was not autonomous as in some other theories in it. Rather, the semantics and pragmatics were key areas for the analysis of sentence structure. Was called because it centrally involved semantic role structure and since the pragmatic level, the reference earlier, played a role was the new theory of Role and Reference Grammar, which loosely translated means something like " Semantic - Kasusrollen and pragmatic grammar " means. The earliest publication on the Role and Reference Grammar is authored jointly with Van Valin essay written in 1977. A first major theoretical basis was the book " Functional syntax and universal grammar " that Foley also in 1984 together with Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. wrote.

This theory was, on the other hand was in the years to become one of the most famous theories of grammar, which on one hand was on the functional, semantics and pragmatics taken into account in the sentence analysis approach to the typological adequacy in a time when functional- typological studies increased steadily. This adequacy meant that as many as possible, ideally: all languages ​​with the theory should be writable.

However, Foley withdrew from this area all the way back and turned increasingly to the language description.

Typology and field research

Foley addressed during the eighties of the last century continue with languages ​​such as those on the Austronesian islands. From 1977 to 1978 he was in an extended research stay in Papua New Guinea and spent over a period of 20 years, many 2-3 month long research trips to the Pacific Islands: the islands of Papua New Guinea, on which a fifth of all the world's languages ​​are spoken, and the islands Austronesiens where Foley examined three languages. About this field of research and its relationship to theory - reflection, he writes:

"This fieldwork is the discipline Which guides my continuing development of syntactic theories, as did for me theory and description Constantly reinforce each other synergistically. " (This field of research is the discipline that drives my further development of syntactic theories, so for me the theory and description constantly reinforce each other synergistically. )

For these languages ​​, he published in 1986 and 1991, two works, the first of which appeared in " Cambridge Language Surveys " and gives an overview of the languages ​​of Papua New Guinea. It is considered the standard work for this.

Linguistic anthropologist

Foley years wrote in 1997 an anthropological linguistics, the field research was preceded by. This anthropological concept refers to Wilhelm von Humboldt and Franz Boas.

In the three linguistic emphasis on theory building, the typological field research and the study of linguistic anthropology Foley conducts research primarily.

Work

  • Foley, William A. (1976). Comparative syntax in Austronesian. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of California, Berkeley.
  • Foley, William & Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. (1977). On the viability of the notion of 'subject' in universal grammar. In: Proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society. Berkeley: 293-320.
  • Foley, William & Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. (1980). Role and Reference Grammar. In: Moravscik, E. A. A. & J. Wirth ( eds. ). Current approaches to syntax: 329-352.
  • Foley, William & Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. (1984). Functional syntax and universal grammar. Cambridge.
  • Foley, William A. (1986). The Papuan Languages ​​of New Guinea. Cambridge.
  • Foley, William A. (1991). The Yimas Language of New Guinea. Stanford.
  • Foley, William A. (1997). Anthropological Linguistics. An introduction Oxford.
  • Foley, William A. ( 2005). Semantic parameters and the unaccusative split in the Austronesian language family: Studies in Language 29, 385-430.
Berkeley, California Field work
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