David Michael Benjamin Denison (born 6 September 1950) is a British linguist whose work focuses on the history of the English language.

Biography

He was educated at

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is an English co-educational, fee-charging, independent day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgat ...

and

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. Th ...

, where he studied mathematics and then Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, and he earned his doctorate at

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, t ...

. He was Smith Professor of English Language & Medieval Literature at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

from 2008. Since March 2015 he has been Professor Emeritus of English Linguistics. He is a past president of the

International Society for the Linguistics of English The International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE), founded in 2008, is a learned society of linguists. The organization's goals are to promote the study of the English Language at an international level, with a particular focus on the ...

(ISLE). Denison served from 1995 to 2010 as one of the founding editors of the journal '' English Language and Linguistics''. In 2014 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Languages at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance durin ...

. In 2014 he was also elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (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 the United Kingdom # C ...

, the United Kingdom's

national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but also the hum ...

for the humanities and social sciences. He's one of the contributors to ''

The Cambridge grammar of the English language ''The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language'' (''CGEL'') is a descriptive grammar of the English language. Its primary authors are Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum. Huddleston was the only author to work on every chapter. It was publ ...

''.

Selected publications

*R. Hogg, D. Denison (eds.). 2006. ''A History of the English Language.'' Cambridge Univ. Press. *B. Aarts, D. Denison, E. Keizer, G. Popova (eds.) 2004. ''Fuzzy Grammar: a reader''. Oxford Univ. Press. *D. Denison. 1999. "Gradience and linguistic change". In ''Historical Linguistics''. Ed. L. Brinton. John Benjamins. * D. Denison. 1998. "Syntax". In ''The Cambridge History of the English Language.'' Vol. IV: ''1776–1997.'' Ed. S. Romaine. Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 92–329. *D. Denison. 1993. ''English Historical Syntax: Verbal Constructions''. Longman.

References

People educated at Highgate School Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Academics of the University of Manchester Linguists from England Fellows of the British Academy Place of birth missing (living people) 1950 births Living people {{UK-linguist-stub