Morris Halle
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2018) |
Morris Halle | |
|---|---|
 Halle in 2011 | |
| Born | Morris Pinkowitz July 23, 1923 Liepāja, Latvia |
| Died | April 2, 2018 (aged 94) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard, Columbia University, University of Chicago, City College of New York |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Phonology, morphology, generative grammar |
| Institutions | MIT |
| Doctoral advisor | Roman Jakobson |
Morris Halle (/ˈhæli/; July 23, 1923 – April 2, 2018) was a Latvian-born Jewish American linguist who was an Institute Professor, and later professor emeritus, of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The father of "modern phonology",[1] he was best known for his pioneering work in generative phonology, having written "On Accent and Juncture in English" in 1956 with Noam Chomsky and Fred Lukoff and The Sound Pattern of English in 1968 with Chomsky. He also co-authored (with Samuel Jay Keyser) the earliest theory of generative metrics.
Life and career
Halle was born - as Morris Pinkowitz (Latvian: Moriss Pinkovics) - on July 23, 1923 in Liepāja, Latvia. In 1929 he moved with his Jewish family to Riga.[2] They arrived in the United States in 1940. From 1941 to 1943, he studied engineering at the City College of New York. He entered the United States Army in 1943 and was discharged in 1946, at which point he went to the University of Chicago, where he got his master's degree in linguistics in 1948. He then studied at Columbia University under Roman Jakobson, became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1951, and earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1955. He retired from MIT in 1996, but he remained active in research and publication. He was fluent in German, Yiddish, Latvian, Russian, Hebrew and English.
Halle was married for fifty-six years to painter, artist and activist Rosamond Thaxter Halle (née Strong), until her death in April 2011. They had three sons: David, John and Timothy.
Halle resided in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He died on April 2, 2018 at the age of 94.[3]
References
- ^ Thus considered by Noam Chomsky, see Morris Halle (MIT): On the morpho-phonology of the Latin verb, introduced by Noam Chomsky.
- ^ E.K. Brown, R.E. Asher, and J.M.Y. Simpson, Encyclopedia of language & linguistics, Volume 1.
- ^ Dizikes, Peter (April 3, 2018). "Institute Professor Emeritus Morris Halle, innovative and influential linguist, dies at 94". MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
External links
- Halle page at MIT
- MIT News Office article about Halle
- Conversation with John A. Goldsmith and Haj Ross
- Reminiscenses by Halle at the 50th anniversary of MIT Linguistics, introduced by Noam Chomsky on YouTube
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 1923 births
- 2018 deaths
- Linguists from the United States
- American people of Latvian-Jewish descent
- Columbia University alumni
- Harvard University alumni
- Jews who emigrated to escape Nazism
- Latvian emigrants to the United States
- Latvian Jews
- Linguists from Latvia
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- People from Liepāja
- Phonologists
- Morphologists
- University of Chicago alumni
- Yiddish-speaking people
- Linguistic Society of America presidents
- 20th-century linguists