Famous British Linguists
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Find out more about the greatest British Linguists, including Percy Bysshe Shelley, Susie Dent, Enoch Powell, Max Müller and Harriet Martineau.
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1
Katharine Gun
(British Linguist and Whistle-blower )
Birthdate: 1974 AD
Birthplace: Taiwan, Taiwan
2
Mary Somerville
(Mathematician, Linguist, Translator, Astronomer, Scientist)
Birthdate: December 26, 1780
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Jedburgh
Died: November 28, 1872
One of the two pioneering female honorary members of the Royal Astronomical Society, Mary Somerville was a 19th-century polymath and science writer. Though she specialized in math and astronomy, she was also well-versed in botany and geology. The Connection of the Physical Sciences remains her most notable work.
3
Michael Halliday
(Linguist who developed the internationally influential systemic functional linguistics (SFL) model of language)
Birthdate: April 13, 1925
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Leeds, England
Died: April 15, 2018
British linguist Michael Halliday is best remembered for his neo-Firthian theory of language. Born to a dialectologist father and an English teacher mother, Halliday naturally developed a love for languages. An expert in Chinese language, he has conducted research on child language development and the theory of grammar.
4
Enoch Powell(Former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom)
Birthdate: June 16, 1912
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Birmingham
Died: February 8, 1998
Enoch Powell was a British politician, linguist, classical scholar, philologist, and poet. Also a soldier, Powell served in World War II, reaching the rank of brigadier. His political career is remembered for his iconic and infamous Rivers of Blood speech, which was interpreted as a demonstration of racism. The speech became the subject of a play titled What Shadows.
5
J. L. Austin
(Philosopher of Language Best Known for Developing the 'Theory of Speech Acts')
Birthdate: March 26, 1911
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Lancaster, England
Died: February 8, 1960
Philosopher J. L. Austin is remembered for his study on ordinary-language philosophy and is also considered a pioneer of the theory of speech acts. His lectures at Harvard were later collected in How to Do Things with Words. He died of cancer while developing a theory on sound symbolism.
6
William Jones
(British Philologist and Jurist Known for His Research on Oriental Languages)
Birthdate: September 28, 1746
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: London, England
Died: April 27, 1794
7
Arthur Waley
(English Sinologist and Orientalist)
Birthdate: August 19, 1889
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England
Died: June 27, 1966
8
Paul Grice
(British Philosopher of Language)
Birthdate: March 13, 1913
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Birmingham, England
Died: August 28, 1988
9
John Florio
(English Poet, Linguist, Writer, Lexicographer, and Translator)
Birthdate: 1553 AD
Birthplace: London, England
Died: 1625 AD
10
Henry Sweet
(English Phonetician, Philologist, and Grammarian)
Birthdate: September 15, 1845
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Died: April 30, 1912
11
John Rupert Firth
(British Linguist)
Birthdate: June 17, 1890
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Keighley, England
Died: December 14, 1960
12
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
(Novelist)
Birthdate: April 22, 1929
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Gibara, Cuba
Died: February 21, 2005
Guillermo Cabrera Infante was a Cuban novelist, essayist, translator, and screenwriter. He initially planned to become a doctor but ditched his plans to become a writer instead. He had a successful career and eventually became the editor of the magazine Carteles and director of the Instituto del Cine. He received the Premio Cervantes in 1997.
13
Joseph Wright
(English Philologist and Academic)
Birthdate: October 31, 1855
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Idle, Bradford, United Kingdom
Died: February 27, 1930
14
Charles Kay Ogden
(English Linguist, Author, and Philosopher Who Developed English as a Mode of International Communication)
Birthdate: June 1, 1889
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Fleetwood, England
Died: March 20, 1957
15
Elizabeth Carter
(English Poet, Translator, and Linguist Who Was Part of the Bluestocking Society )
Birthdate: December 16, 1717
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Deal, England
Died: February 19, 1806
16
Peter Ladefoged
(British Linguist, Phonetician, and Professor)
Birthdate: September 17, 1925
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Sutton, England
Died: January 24, 2006
17
Sir George Abraham Grierson
(Irish Linguist and Scholar Who Conducted the Linguistic Survey of India )
Birthdate: January 7, 1851
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Glenageary, Ireland
Died: March 9, 1941
18
Alan Gardiner
(English Egyptologist, Philologist, and Linguist Who Studied Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs)
Birthdate: March 29, 1879
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Eltham, London, England
Died: December 19, 1963
19
John Chadwick
(English Linguist and Academic)
Birthdate: May 21, 1920
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Thames, England
Died: November 24, 1998
20
Reynold A. Nicholson
(British Orientalist and Scholar Known for His Work on Islamic Literature)
Birthdate: August 18, 1868
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Keighley, England
Died: August 27, 1945
21
Stephen Levinson
(British Social Scientist and Academic)
Birthdate: December 6, 1947
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: London, England
22
Randolph Quirk
(British Linguist, Academic, and Life Peer )
Birthdate: July 12, 1920
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Isle of Man
Died: December 20, 2017
23
Archibald Sayce
(British Linguist, Assyriologist, and Academic Who Studied Middle Eastern Languages)
Birthdate: September 25, 1846
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Shirehampton, Bristol, England
Died: February 4, 1933
24
Peter Hebblethwaite
(British Jesuit Priest, Author, and Vaticanologist)
Birthdate: September 30, 1930
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Ashton-under-Lyne, England
Died: December 18, 1994
25
Sir Edward Howard Marsh
(British Polymath, Translator, and Patron of the Arts)
Birthdate: November 18, 1872
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: London, England
Died: January 13, 1953
26
Bernard Comrie
(British-Born Linguist and Academician)
Birthdate: May 23, 1947
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Sunderland, England
27
Robert M. W. Dixon
(British-Born Linguist and Academic)
Birthdate: January 25, 1939
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Gloucester, England
28
Nathan Bailey
(Pioneering English Philologist and Lexicographer )
Birthplace: England
Died: June 27, 1742
29
Ernest Weekley
(Philologist)
Birthdate: April 27, 1865
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: London, England
Died: May 7, 1954
30
Thomas Hoby
(English Translator and Diplomat)
Birthdate: 1530 AD
Birthplace: England
Died: July 13, 1566
31
Angus McIntosh
(British Linguist and Academic )
Birthdate: January 10, 1914
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Sunderland, England
Died: October 25, 2005
32
Eve Clark
(British-born American Linguist)
Birthdate: July 26, 1942
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Camberley, United Kingdom
33
John of Garland
(British Grammarian and University Teacher)
Birthdate: 1190 AD
Birthplace: England
Died: 1270 AD