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Michael K. Brame (January 27, 1944 — August 16, 2010) was an American linguist and professor at the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle ...
, and founding editor of the peer-reviewed research journal, ''Linguistic Analysis''. He was known for his theory of recursive categorical syntax. He also co-authored with his wife, Galina Popova, several books on the identity of the writer who used the pseudonym "
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
".


Early life and education

Michael Brame was born on January 27, 1944 in
San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_ ...
. Brame started his study of linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin, receiving his BA in 1966. That summer he studied
Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and ...
at the
American University of Cairo The American University in Cairo (AUC; ar, الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة, Al-Jāmi‘a al-’Amrīkiyya bi-l-Qāhira) is a private research university in Cairo, Egypt. The university offers American-style learning programs ...
. That fall, Brame began a PhD program at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
, studying under
Morris Halle Morris Halle (; July 23, 1923 – April 2, 2018) was a Latvian-born Jewish American linguist who was an Institute Professor, and later professor emeritus, of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The father of "modern phonol ...
and
Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky ...
, who was his adviser. He received his PhD in 1970 or 1971. His dissertation was titled ''Arabic Phonology: Implications for Phonological Theory and Historical Semitic''. Brame was a Fulbright scholar (Netherlands, 1973-1974).Michael Brame
at ''Fulbright Scholar Directory''.


Recursive categorical syntax

Brame developed an
algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...
ic theory of
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 ...
, recursive categorical syntax, also sometimes called algebraic syntax, as an alternative to transformational-generative grammar. It is a type of
dependency grammar Dependency grammar (DG) is a class of modern grammatical theories that are all based on the dependency relation (as opposed to the ''constituency relation'' of phrase structure) and that can be traced back primarily to the work of Lucien Tesniè ...
, and is related to
link grammar Link grammar (LG) is a theory of syntax by Davy Temperley and Daniel Sleator which builds relations between pairs of words, rather than constructing constituents in a phrase structure hierarchy. Link grammar is similar to dependency grammar, but ...
s. Brame formulated an
algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...
, (technically a non-associative
groupoid In mathematics, especially in category theory and homotopy theory, a groupoid (less often Brandt groupoid or virtual group) generalises the notion of group in several equivalent ways. A groupoid can be seen as a: *'' Group'' with a partial funct ...
with inverses) of
lexical item In lexicography, a lexical item is a single word, a part of a word, or a chain of words ( catena) that forms the basic elements of a language's lexicon (≈ vocabulary). Examples are ''cat'', ''traffic light'', ''take care of'', ''by the way' ...
s (words and phrases), or lexes for short. A lex is a string representation of a word or idiomatic phrase together with a notation specifying what other word classes can bond with the string and in which order.


''Shakespeare's Fingerprints''

In 2002, Brame co-authored with his wife Galina Popova a book titled ''Shakespeare's Fingerprints''. Over the next two years, they would publish three more books on the topic.


Personal life

Brame was married to Galina Popova.


Bibliography


Dissertation

*


Books

* * * ;On Shakespeare * * * *


Selected articles

* * * * * ;Recursive categorical syntax * * * * * *


See also

* * * *


References


Citations


Works cited

* * * *


Further reading

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brame, Michael 1944 births 2010 deaths 20th-century linguists Dependency grammar Grammar frameworks Linguists from the United States Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni People from San Antonio Shakespeare authorship theorists University of Texas at Austin alumni University of Washington faculty