Sir John Lyons FBA (23 May 1932 12 March 2020) was a British linguist, working on

semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

Education

John Lyons was born and brought up in

Stretford Stretford is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, sited on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal; the Bridgewater Canal bisects the town. The town is located south of Manchester, south of Salfo ...

, Lancashire (now in Trafford). He was initially educated at St Ann's RC School, Stretford, before he won a scholarship to St Bede's College, Manchester, joining in September 1943. In July 1950, Lyons progressed to

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

, where he took a degree in

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

in 1953 and a Diploma in Education in 1954.

Life and career

After doing his

national service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

in the

navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

for two years, studying Russian as a coder (special), and commissioned as a midshipman, he returned to Cambridge as a PhD student in 1956. His supervisor was W. Sidney Allen. The following year he was made a lecturer at the

School of Oriental and African Studies The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

. He was also awarded a one-year Rockefeller Scholarship to Yale, but declined for the more opportunistic academic position in linguistics that was rare in those days in Britain. Lyons moved from Cambridge to

SOAS The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

in London, where R. H. Robins was his PhD supervisor. In the summer of 1960, Lyons went to

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

to work in a

machine translation Machine translation is use of computational techniques to translate text or speech from one language to another, including the contextual, idiomatic and pragmatic nuances of both languages. Early approaches were mostly rule-based or statisti ...

project; he was chosen because of his expertise in Russian and linguistics. It was at Indiana, in a post- Bloomfieldean milieu, where Lyons gave courses on general linguistics. In 1961, he returned to Christ's College, where he taught until 1964. Between 1965 and 1969, he was the founder editor of the ''

Journal of Linguistics The ''Journal of Linguistics'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering all branches of theoretical linguistics and the official publication of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain. It is published by Cambridge University Pr ...

''. From 1964 to 1984, he was professor of linguistics at the universities of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

. He was master of

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge, colloquially "Tit Hall" ) is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1350, it is th ...

for 15 years, before retiring in 2000; he was an honorary fellow at the college. Lyons' introductory texts are ''Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics'', ''Chomsky'', ''Semantics'', and ''Linguistic Semantics''. He was the creator of a

constructed language A constructed language (shortened to conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, orthography, and vocabulary, instead of having developed natural language, naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devise ...

called Bongo-Bongo, which he created as a teaching tool for his linguistics students. Upon retirement in 2000 he moved to France. He died on 12 March 2020.

Honours

He was knighted in 1987 "for services to the study of linguistics". In 2016, he was awarded the Neil and Saras Smith Medal for Linguistics by the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

"for his outstanding lifetime contribution to the field of linguistics".

Selected works

*''

Structural Semantics Structural semantics (also structuralist semantics) is a linguistic school and paradigm that emerged in Europe from the 1930s, inspired by the structuralist linguistic movement started by Ferdinand de Saussure's 1916 work "'' Cours De Linguistiq ...

'' (1963) *'' Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics'' (1968) *''

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

'' ( Fontana Modern Masters, 1970) *'' New Horizons in Linguistics'' (1970) (as editor) *''

Semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

'' (1977) *'' Language and Linguistics'' (1981) *'' Language, Meaning and Context'' (1981) *''New Horizons in Linguistics 2'' (1987) (as co-editor) *'' Natural Language and Universal Grammar'' (1991) *'' Linguistic Semantics: An introduction'' (1995)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyons, John 1932 births 2020 deaths Academics of SOAS University of London Academics of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Constructed language creators English male writers Fellows of the British Academy Knights Bachelor Linguists from England Masters of Trinity Hall, Cambridge People educated at St Bede's College, Manchester People from Stretford Recipients of the Neil and Saras Smith Medal for Linguistics Semanticists Linguistics journal editors

Education

Life and career

Honours

Selected works

See also

References