Robert Henry Robins, FBA (1 July 1921 – 21 April 2000), affectionately known to his close ones as Bobby Robins, was a British

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

. Before his retirement, he spent his entire career at the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics 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 ...

of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. Robin's work in linguistics covered several diverse areas, including Firthian prosodic analysis, endangered languages and the history of linguistic thought. He wrote two popular textbooks, ''General Linguistics: An Introductory Survey'' (1964) and ''A Short History of Linguistics'' (1967).

Early life and education

Robins was born in

Broadstairs Broadstairs () is a coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in the Thanet district of east Kent, England, about east of London. It is part of the civil parish of Broadstairs and St Peter's, which includes St Peter's, and had a population in 2011 ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, on 1 July 1921. His father was a medical practitioner.'ROBINS, Prof. Robert Henry', ''

Who Was Who ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It has been published annually in the form of a hardback book since 1849, and has been published online since 1999. It has also been published on CD-ROM. It lists, and gives information on, people from around ...

'', A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 201
accessed 26 Nov 2017
/ref> In his childhood, Robins studied French,

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

. He won a scholarship at

Tonbridge School Tonbridge School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for boys aged 13–18) in Tonbridge, Kent, England, founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judde (sometimes spelt Judd). It is a member of the Eton Group and has clo ...

in 1935 and a scholarship for

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 ...

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

, in 1940. He completed his university studies in 1948 with first class honours in Literae Humaniores (both Mods and Greats). During the Second World War, a stint where he taught

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

servicemen attracted him to the field of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

. Robins later obtained a DLit degree from London University in 1968.

Career

Robins served in the

RAF Intelligence Intelligence services in the Royal Air Force are delivered by Officers of the Royal Air Force Intelligence Branch and Airmen from the Intelligence Analyst Trade and Intelligence Analyst (Voice) Trade. The specialisation has around 1,200 person ...

from 1942 to 1945 as language instructor. After completing his university studies Robins was appointed to a lectureship (1948–1955) in the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics in the

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

. John Rupert Firth was the head of department at the time and was a major influence on Robins. Under Firth's directions, Robins carried out field work in the early 1950s on the now-extinct

Yurok language Yurok (also Chillula, Mita, Pekwan, Rikwa, Sugon, Weitspek, Weitspekan) is an Algic language. It is the traditional language of the Yurok people of Del Norte County and Humboldt County on the far north coast of California, most of whom now ...

of northern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and also did work on ancient linguistics. Robins later became reader in general linguistics (1955–1965), professor of general linguistics (1966–1986) and ultimately head of department (1970–1985) at the same institution. He served as dean of the Faculty of Arts (1984–86) of London University. He was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(FBA) in 1986. Robins was a research fellow at the University of California in 1951. He was Visiting Professor in Washington (1963), Hawaii (1968), Minnesota (1971), Florida (1975) and Salzburg (1977 and 1979). He was also a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow (1990–1991).

Post-retirement activities

After retirement, Robins dedicated himself to promoting the

history of linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language, involving analysis of language form, language meaning, and language in context. Language use was first systematically documented in Mesopotamia, with extant lexical lists of the 3rd to the 2nd ...

. He wrote books on the subject and regularly attended conferences of the various national societies for the subject. He was emeritus professor (1986–2001) at London University. He taught at both University of Luton and

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

until the early months of 2000.

Death

Robins died at his home in

Caterham Caterham () is a town in the Tandridge (district), Tandridge district of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valle ...

on 21 April 2000 at the age of 78.

Affiliations

Robins was president of Societas Linguistica Europaea in 1974. He was British representative (1970–1977) and one-time president of the International Committee of Linguists (1977–1997). He was chairman of the Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas at the time of his death. He was also an honorary member of

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'', ...

from 1981 until his death. Perhaps Robins's most important fellowship was that of the Philological Society, the oldest linguistics society in existence. Robins was its secretary for 18 years (1961–1988) and later became its president (1988–1992). After his presidency ended, the Society conferred on him the title of President Emeritus uniquely in his honor. After Robins's death, the society created a prize in his name, the R. H. Robins Prize, "for an article submission on a linguistic topic that falls within the area of the Society’s interests as defined by present and past publications in the Transactions of the Philological Society." The linguistics field as a whole have honored him with two

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

en: * F. R. Palmer and Theodora Bynon, eds. (1986) ''Studies in the history of linguistic science: a festschrift for R. H. Robins''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *

Selected works

* ''Ancient and Medieval Grammatical Theory in Europe'' (1951) * ''The Yurok Language'' (1958) * ''General Linguistics: An Introductory Survey'' (1964) * ''A Short History of Linguistics'' (1967) * ''Diversions of Bloomsbury'' (1970) * ''Ideen- und Problemgeschichte der Sprachwissenschaft'' (1973) * ''Sistem dan Struktur Bahasa Sunda'' (1983) * ''The Byzantine Grammarians: Their Place in History'' (1993) * ''Texts and Contexts: Selected Papers on the History of Linguistics'' (1998)