R. M. W. Dixon

Robert Malcolm Ward Dixon ( born January 25, 1939 in Gloucester, England) is an influential British- Australian linguist who is since 2008 Professor of Linguistics at the Cairns Institute, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia.

Dixon has worked mainly in the field of Australian languages ​​and South American languages ​​, but has also general typological issues, such as the phenomenon of ergativity and the study of the processes involved in language contact, busy.

Particularly well known is his grammar of Dyirbal, because it is considered a good example of the successful avoidance of unthinking application of categories that have been developed for the identification of European languages ​​, on very different working languages.

Publications (selection)

  • The Dyirbal language of North Queensland. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1972
  • A grammar of Yidiny. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1977
  • A grammar of Fijian Boumaa. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1988
  • Ergativity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1994
  • The rise and fall of languages ​​. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1997
  • I am a linguist. Brill, Leiden 2001 ( autobiography)
  • Australian languages ​​: their nature and development. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002
  • The language of southern Amazonia Jarawara. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004
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