David Ian Beaver is a professor of linguistics and philosophy at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, where he also directs the cognitive science program and serves as Graduate Studies Advisor of the Human Dimensions of Organizations Master's program. His work concerns the

semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

and

pragmatics In linguistics and the philosophy of language, pragmatics is the study of how Context (linguistics), context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship ...

natural language A natural language or ordinary language is a language that occurs naturally in a human community by a process of use, repetition, and change. It can take different forms, typically either a spoken language or a sign language. Natural languages ...

, including, in particular, research on

presupposition In linguistics and philosophy, a presupposition is an implicit assumption about the world or background belief relating to an utterance whose truth is taken for granted in discourse. Examples of presuppositions include: * ''Jane no longer writes ...

, anaphora, topic and

focus Focus (: foci or focuses) may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in East Australia Film *Focus (2001 film), ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based on the Arthur Miller novel *Focus (2015 ...

Education and career

Beaver received a B.Sc. in 1988 from the Departments of Physics and Philosophy at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

, an M.Sc. in 1989 from the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, and a Ph.D. in 1995 from the Centre for Cognitive Science also at the

, where his principal advisor was Ewan Klein and his secondary advisor was Robin Cooper. Beaver was an assistant professor (1997–2005) and an associate professor (2005–2007) at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

before he was hired as an associate professor by the

in 2007. Beaver was promoted to full professor by UT Austin in 2011.

Research

In addition to his work in formal semantics and pragmatics, Beaver contributes to research on the social dimensions of language use, a topic of quite general interest as evidenced by a 29 October 2011 New York Times op-ed by

Ben Zimmer Benjamin Zimmer (born 1971) is an American linguist, lexicographer, and language commentator. He is a contributing editor for ''The Atlantic''. He was formerly a language columnist for ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The Boston Globe'', and ''The ...

, which discusses Beaver's work on sentiment in Arab Spring tweets.

Honors

Beaver's 2013 paper "Toward a taxonomy of projective content," coauthored with Judith Tonhauser,

Craige Roberts Craige Roberts (born February 20, 1949) is an American linguist, known for her work on pragmatics and formal semantics. Education and career Roberts earned her A.B. at Indiana University in 1979. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Ma ...

, and Mandy Simons, won the 2013 Best Paper in ''Language'' Award from 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'', ...

Books

* Beaver, David. 2001
Presupposition and Assertion in Dynamic Semantics
Stanford: CSLI Publications. * Beaver, David and Brady Clark. 2008. Sense and Sensitivity: How Focus Determines Meaning. Oxford: Blackwell.

References

External links

David Beaver
at University of Texas at Austin {{DEFAULTSORT:Beaver, David Linguists from the United Kingdom Semanticists University of Texas at Austin Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Linguistic Society of America