Quick Facts
Biography
Thomas Givon (also known as Talmy Givón) (born June 22, 1936) is a linguist and writer. He is one of the founders of functionalism in linguistics and of the linguistics department at the University of Oregon based on his functional-adaptive approach to language and communication.
Education
Givón earned his bachelor of science degree cum laude in agriculture from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1959. Attending UCLA, he received a Master of Science degree in horticulture in 1962, a C.Phil in Plant Biochemistry, a Master of Arts degree in linguistics in 1966, and a PhD in linguistics in 1969, as well as an TESL certificate in 1965.
Career
Research Associate in Lexicography (Systems Development Corporation, 1966–1967); Research Associate in Bantu Linguistics (University of Zambia 1967–1968); Assistant Professor of Linguistics and African Languages (UCLA 1969–1974); Associate Professor of Linguistics (UCLA 1974–1979); Professor of Linguistics (UCLA 1969–1981); Professor of Linguistics (University of Oregon 1981–2002); Distinguished Professor (emeritus) of Linguistics and Cognitive Science (University of Oregon; 2002– ). Givón's last general linguistic project was The Genesis of Complex Syntax: Diachrony, Ontogeny, Cognition, Evolution.
Work in linguistics
His work covers many language areas (Semitic, African, Amerindian, Austronesian, Papuan, Sino-Tibetan, Indo-European), as well as many areas of theoretical linguistics: (syntax, semantics, pragmatics, second language acquisition, pidgins and creoles, discourse and text linguistics, methodology and philosophy of science, philosophy of language, typology and language universals, grammaticalization and historical syntax, cognitive science, language evolution).
Givón is said to have coined the aphorism that "today's morphology is yesterday's syntax", in a development of Antoine Meillet's work on grammaticalisation.
He was the editor of the book series Typological Studies in Language published by John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Other writings
Givon has written a series of novels and historical translations through his publishing house, White Cloud Publishing, and is a google blogger.