Miriam Meyerhoff (born 1964) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

sociolinguist. In 2020 she was appointed as a senior research fellow at

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of ...

Early life and family

Meyerhoff was born in 1964, the daughter of poet Mary Cresswell and philosopher . Her father died in a car accident the following year, and her mother married logician

Max Cresswell Maxwell John Cresswell (born 19 November 1939) is a New Zealand philosopher and logician, known for his work in modal logic.''Festschrift for Max Cresswell on the occasion of his 65th birthday.'' In: ''Logique et Analyse.'' Number 181, March 2 ...

in 1970. The family subsequently moved to New Zealand.

Academic career

Meyerhoff completed a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...

degree at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Z ...

, and, in 1997, a

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 ''Piled Higher and Deeper'' (also known as ''PhD Comics''), is a newsp ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

. Her PhD supervisor was Gillian Sankoff. Meyerhoff has held faculty positions at the

University of Hawaii at Manoa A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

, the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn ...

, and Victoria University of Wellington. In 2020, Meyerhoff was appointed a senior research fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford. Meyerhoff's research examines the sociolinguistic constraints on

variation Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individual ...

, principally in communities characterised by language or dialect contact. Much of her work since her dissertation has been on Creoles, as their (typical) lack of standardisation leads to variation and change at all levels of linguistic structure. She is the author of a well-regarded introductory textbook on sociolinguistics (Meyerhoff 2018). Meyerhoff has spoken to media on linguistic issues, including: whether New Zealand speech is affected by migration patterns and diversity; the use of the word ''eh'' in

New Zealand English New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

; and the impact of digital technology on communication.

Honours

In 2020, Meyerhoff was inducted as a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

. In 2017, she was elected a fellow of the

Royal Society Te Apārangi The Royal Society Te Apārangi (in full, Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi) is an independent, statutory not-for-profit body in New Zealand providing funding and policy advice in the fields of sciences and the humanities. History The R ...

Publications

* According to

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

, the book is held in 811 libraries. * According to WorldCat, the book is held in 511 libraries in 40 editions.WorldCat book entry
/ref> * * * * * Meyerhoff, Miriam. 2018. ''Introducing Sociolinguistics''. Routledge. ISBN 9781138185593 * *

References

External links

google scholar

linked-in

institutional homepage

1964 births Living people New Zealand women academics Sociolinguists Linguists from New Zealand University of Pennsylvania alumni Cornell University faculty Academic staff of the University of Auckland New Zealand writers New Zealand women writers Women linguists Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand Fellows of the Linguistic Society of America {{NewZealand-academic-bio-stub