Robert Anderson Hall Jr. (April 4, 1911December 2, 1997) was an

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linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and specialist in the

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

. He was a professor of

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and the first president of The Wodehouse Society (US). Hall was an early promoter of the linguistics of

Creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...

s, and published broadly within the field. Under the auspices of the United States Armed Services Institute, he wrote a structuralist description of Melanesian Pidgin English in 1943. Among other creoles and pidgin languages, he studied Sranan of Surinam and

Haitian Creole Haitian Creole (; ht, kreyòl ayisyen, links=no, ; french: créole haïtien, links=no, ), commonly referred to as simply ''Creole'', or ''Kreyòl'' in the Creole language, is a French-based creole language spoken by 10–12million people wor ...

. Hall organized the successful spoken language learning method for soldiers in the

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. Hall criticized

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because it encouraged the use of multi-meaning words (such as ''get'') under the guise of simplicity. Hall took the controversial view that the

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, a purported relic of an early

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visit to what is now

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, was authentic. Hall was an outspoken critic of the generative tradition of linguistics emanating from Noam Chomsky, for example remarking that "Chomskyan transformationalism rejects a scientific approach for an anti-scientific one."''American Linguistics: 1925-1969. Three essays with a Preface to the Reprint.'' Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (1976), p. 91

Notable works

*''An Analytical Grammar of the Hungarian Language'' (1938) *''Melanesian Pidgin English: Grammar, Texts, Vocabulary'' (1943) *''New Ways to Learn a Foreign Language'' (1946) *''Leave Your Language Alone'' (1950) *''Haitian Creole: Grammar, Texts, Vocabulary'' (1953) *''Hands Off Pidgin English!'' (1955) *''Italian for Modern Living'' (1959, repr. 1974) *''Idealism in Romance Linguistics'' (1963) *''Introductory Linguistics'' (1964) *''Pidgin and Creole Languages'' (1966) *''An Essay on Language'' (1968) *''External History of the Romance Languages'' (1974) *''The Comic Style of P. G. Wodehouse'' (1974) *''Stormy Petrel in Linguistics'' (essays, some polemics) (1975) *''American Linguistics: 1925-1969. Three essays with a Preface to the Reprint.'' Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (1976) *''Proto-Romance Phonology'' (1976) *''Language, Literature, and Life'' (selected essays) (1978) *''Linguistics and Pseudo-Linguistics'' (selected essays) (1978) *''The Kensington Rune-Stone is Genuine'' (1982) *''A Life for Language: a Biographical Memoir of Leonard Bloomfield'' (1990)

References

External links

Obituary
Linguists from the United States 1911 births 1997 deaths 20th-century linguists {{US-linguist-stub