James Edward Miller (1942 - 8 February 2019) was a Professor of

cognitive linguistics Cognitive linguistics is an interdisciplinary branch of linguistics, combining knowledge and research from cognitive science, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and linguistics. Models and theoretical accounts of cognitive linguistics are cons ...

at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

, researcher on language

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 ...

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 standardology. In the period of 2003-2007 he was

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

of Spoken Language at the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics of 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 ...

Life

In 1965 he received an M.A. at the University of Edinburgh in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

, receiving a Diploma in General Linguistics a year later. He received his Ph.D. on ''Tense and Aspect in Russian'' in 1970. After graduation, his main focus of interest for the first 20 years were in aspect,

case Case or CASE may refer to: Instances * Instantiation (disambiguation), a realization of a concept, theme, or design * Special case, an instance that differs in a certain way from others of the type Containers * Case (goods), a package of relate ...

and transitivity, as well as various models of the

generative grammar Generative grammar is a research tradition in linguistics that aims to explain the cognitive basis of language by formulating and testing explicit models of humans' subconscious grammatical knowledge. Generative linguists, or generativists (), ...

framework. In the late 1970s he investigated the syntax of

Scottish English Scottish English is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard English may be defined ...

together with Keith Brown, which eventually led him to the research of a more general notion of syntax of spontaneous spoken language (English, Russian, and French), as well as the relation of spoken and written language,

literacy Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

, and the relationship of language and

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

and identity. As a result of this research, he published a book ''Spontaneous Spoken Language'' together with Regina Weinert in 1998. His research interest included speaking, writing and

language acquisition Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language. In other words, it is how human beings gain the ability to be aware of language, to understand it, and to produce and use words and s ...

, as well as topics on spoken language, non-standard language, and typology. He died on 8 February 2019 at the age of 76.Obituary: Jim Miller
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Books

* ''Semantics and Syntax: Parallels and Connections'' (1985) * ''Syntax: A Linguistic Introduction to Sentence Structure'' (1992, with E K Brown, James V Miller) * ''Spontaneous Spoken Language : Syntax and Discourse'' (1998, with Regina Weinert) * ''An Introduction to English Syntax'' (2000)

References

Personal Webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Jim Academics of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Linguists from New Zealand Academic staff of the University of Auckland 1942 births 2019 deaths