Alan Sanford Prince (born 1946) is a Board of Governors Professor Emeritus of

Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Ling ...

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

-New Brunswick. Prince, along with

Paul Smolensky Paul Smolensky (born May 5, 1955) is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Cognitive Science at the Johns Hopkins University and a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, Redmond Washington. Along with Alan Prince, in 1993 he developed O ...

, developed Optimality Theory, which was originally applied to

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

, but has been extended to other areas of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Ling ...

such as

syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...

and

semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...

Biography

Prince went to high school in

Fairfax, Virginia The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...

, got his BA with "great distinction" from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Univer ...

, and received his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

from MIT in 1975. Before coming to Rutgers, he was a professor of linguistics at

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , p ...

and at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...

. In 2010 Prince was named the Rutgers Board of Governors Professor of Linguistics. He became an Emeritus Professor at Rutgers in 2015 upon his retirement. The "Short 'schrift for Alan Prince" was assembled for this occasion, and presented to him at the 2015 Rutgers Typology Workshop. Prince is married to Jane Grimshaw, who is a Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at Rutgers University.

Awards

In 1998, Prince was named a fellow of the

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowships to professionals who have demonstrated exceptional ...

.John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
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Key Publications

A. Prince, P. Smolensky. 2008.
Optimality Theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar
' J.J. McCarthy, A. Prince. 1995.
Faithfulness and reduplicative identity
'. J.J. McCarthy, A. Prince. 1993 ''Generalized alignment.'' Springer. S. Pinker, A. Prince. 1988.
On language and connectionism: Analysis of a parallel distributed processing model of language acquisition
''Cognition''. A. Prince, 1983. Relating to the grid. ''Linguistic Inquiry.'' M. Liberman, A. Prince. 1977. On stress and linguistic rhythm. ''Linguistic Inquiry''

References

External links

Homepage at Rutgers
Linguists from the United States American phonologists 1946 births Living people People from Fairfax, Virginia Fellows of the Cognitive Science Society {{US-linguist-stub