John Joseph McCarthy (born 1953) is an American linguist and the Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs 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, it ...

since July 2017. In July 2018, he assumed office as the Provost. McCarthy is best-known for his work on

Optimality Theory In linguistics, Optimality Theory (frequently abbreviated OT) is a linguistic model proposing that the observed forms of language arise from the optimal satisfaction of conflicting constraints. OT differs from other approaches to phonological ...

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 ...

: with Alan Prince, he devised Correspondence Theory and alignment constraints, although he has subsequently renounced the latter.McCarthy, John. OT Constraints are Categorical. ''Phonology'' 20 75--138. 2003 He has since written textbooks like '' Doing Optimality Theory: Applying Theory to Data''. Earlier in his career, McCarthy was responsible, along with Prince, for extending autosegmental phonology, and later

, to

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

, in particular to solve the problem of nonconcatenative morphology in

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant and ...

Career

HHe completed his A.B. in linguistics and Near Eastern languages at

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

and obtained his Ph.D. from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

in 1979. He was a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a visiting scientist at

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

before moving to the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Books

* ''

Formal Problems in Semitic Phonology and Morphology Formal, formality, informal or informality imply the complying with, or not complying with, some set of requirements (forms, in Ancient Greek). They may refer to: Dress code and events * Formal wear, attire for formal events * Semi-formal atti ...

'', Routledge 2018 *'' Doing Optimality Theory: Applying Theory to Data'', Wiley-Blackwell 2008 * '' Optimality Theory in Phonology: A Reader'' (ed.), ‎ Wiley-Blackwell 2008 * '' A Thematic Guide to Optimality Theory'', Cambridge University Press 2001

References

External links

John McCarthy's homepage
1953 births Harvard College alumni MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni Linguists from the United States American phonologists University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Living people People from Medford, Massachusetts Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the Linguistic Society of America {{US-linguist-stub

Career

Books

See also

References

External links