Famous British Linguists

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 1 
Katharine Gun
(British Linguist and Whistle-blower )
Katharine Gun
8
Birthdate: 1974 AD
Birthplace: Taiwan, Taiwan
 2 
Michael Halliday
(British Linguist Who Developed the Internationally Influential Systemic Functional Linguistics Model of Language)
Michael Halliday
4
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.

 3 
Enoch Powell
(Former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom)
Enoch Powell
17
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.

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 4 
J. L. Austin
(Philosopher of Language Best Known for Developing the 'Theory of Speech Acts')
J. L. Austin
4
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.

 5 
William Jones
(British Philologist and Jurist Known for His Research on Oriental Languages)
William Jones
3
Birthdate: September 28, 1746
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: London, England
Died: April 27, 1794
 6 
Arthur Waley
(English Sinologist and Orientalist)
Arthur Waley
3
Birthdate: August 19, 1889
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England
Died: June 27, 1966
 7 
Paul Grice
(British Philosopher of Language)
Paul Grice
0
Birthdate: March 13, 1913
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Birmingham, England
Died: August 28, 1988
 8 
John Florio
(English Poet, Linguist, Writer, Lexicographer, and Translator)
John Florio
3
Birthdate: 1553 AD
Birthplace: London, England
Died: 1625 AD
 9 
Henry Sweet
(English Phonetician, Philologist, and Grammarian)
Henry Sweet
1
Birthdate: September 15, 1845
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Died: April 30, 1912
 10 
John Rupert Firth
(British Linguist)
John Rupert Firth
3
Birthdate: June 17, 1890
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Keighley, England
Died: December 14, 1960
 11 
Joseph Wright
(English Philologist and Academic)
Joseph Wright
1
Birthdate: October 31, 1855
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Idle, Bradford, United Kingdom
Died: February 27, 1930
 12 
Charles Kay Ogden
(English Linguist, Author, and Philosopher Who Developed English as a Mode of International Communication)
Charles Kay Ogden
2
Birthdate: June 1, 1889
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Fleetwood, England
Died: March 20, 1957
 13 
Elizabeth Carter
(English Poet, Translator, and Linguist Who Was Part of the Bluestocking Society )
Elizabeth Carter
2
Birthdate: December 16, 1717
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Deal, England
Died: February 19, 1806
 14 
Peter Ladefoged
(British Linguist, Phonetician, and Professor)
Peter Ladefoged
2
Birthdate: September 17, 1925
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Sutton, England
Died: January 24, 2006
 15 
Sir George Abraham Grierson
(Irish Linguist and Scholar Who Conducted the Linguistic Survey of India )
Sir George Abraham Grierson
2
Birthdate: January 7, 1851
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Glenageary, Ireland
Died: March 9, 1941
 16 
Alan Gardiner
(English Egyptologist, Philologist, and Linguist Who Studied Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs)
Alan Gardiner
1
Birthdate: March 29, 1879
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Eltham, London, England
Died: December 19, 1963
 17 
Reynold A. Nicholson
(British Orientalist and Scholar Known for His Work on Islamic Literature)
Reynold A. Nicholson
2
Birthdate: August 18, 1868
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Keighley, England
Died: August 27, 1945
 18 
John Chadwick
(English Linguist and Academic)
John Chadwick
1
Birthdate: May 21, 1920
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Thames, England
Died: November 24, 1998
 19 
Stephen Levinson
(British Social Scientist and Academic)
Stephen Levinson
0
Birthdate: December 6, 1947
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: London, England
 20 
Randolph Quirk
(British Linguist, Academic, and Life Peer )
Randolph Quirk
0
Birthdate: July 12, 1920
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Isle of Man
Died: December 20, 2017
 21 
Archibald Sayce
(British Linguist, Assyriologist, and Academic Who Studied Middle Eastern Languages)
Archibald Sayce
2
Birthdate: September 25, 1846
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Shirehampton, Bristol, England
Died: February 4, 1933
 22 
Peter Hebblethwaite
(British Jesuit Priest, Author, and Vaticanologist)
Peter Hebblethwaite
1
Birthdate: September 30, 1930
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Ashton-under-Lyne, England
Died: December 18, 1994
 23 
Sir Edward Howard Marsh
(British Polymath, Translator, and Patron of the Arts)
Sir Edward Howard Marsh
2
Birthdate: November 18, 1872
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: London, England
Died: January 13, 1953
 24 
Bernard Comrie
(British-Born Linguist and Academician)
Bernard Comrie
0
Birthdate: May 23, 1947
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Sunderland, England
 25 
Robert M. W. Dixon
(British-Born Linguist and Academic)
Robert M. W. Dixon
0
Birthdate: January 25, 1939
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Gloucester, England
 26 
Nathan Bailey
(Pioneering English Philologist and Lexicographer )
Nathan Bailey
1
Birthplace: England
Died: June 27, 1742
 27 
Ernest Weekley
(Philologist)
Ernest Weekley
1
Birthdate: April 27, 1865
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: London, England
Died: May 7, 1954
 28 
Thomas Hoby
(English Translator and Diplomat)
Thomas Hoby
1
Birthdate: 1530 AD
Birthplace: England
Died: July 13, 1566
 29 
Angus McIntosh
(British Linguist and Academic )
Angus McIntosh
1
Birthdate: January 10, 1914
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Sunderland, England
Died: October 25, 2005
 30 
Eve Clark
(British-born American Linguist)
Eve Clark
0
Birthdate: July 26, 1942
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Camberley, United Kingdom
 31 
John of Garland
(British Grammarian and University Teacher)
John of Garland
1
Birthdate: 1190 AD
Birthplace: England
Died: 1270 AD