M. Lynne Murphy (born 1965) is a professor of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

, England. She runs the blog ''Separated by a Common Language'' under the username Lynneguist and has written five books.

Studies

Murphy has a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in Linguistics and Philosophy from the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

, as well as an A.M. and

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

Career

Murphy taught at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

in South Africa and

Baylor University Baylor University is a Private university, private Baptist research university in Waco, Texas, United States. It was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Te ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. In 2000, she moved to England and began teaching at the

where she became a professor. Her linguistic research specialises in

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 ...

, in particular

semantic relations Semantics is the study of linguistic 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 between sense and referenc ...

. She has written 5 books: ''Semantic Relations and the Lexicon'', ''Key Terms in Semantics'', ''Lexical Meaning'', ''Antonyms in English'', and ''The Prodigal Tongue.'' Her book ''The Prodigal Tongue'' (for which she received a grant from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

), and her blog ''Separated by a Common Language'', compare

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

and

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

. In 2012, she gave a

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

talk at the University of Sussex, and in 2016 spoke at the Boring Conference.

Honors and awards

Murphy received a grant from the NEH Public Scholars Program for her most recent book, ''The Prodigal Tongue.''

Selected publications

Books

*M. Lynne Murphy. 2003. ''Semantic relations and the lexicon: antonymy, synonymy and other paradigms''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *M. Lynne Murphy. 2010. ''Lexical meaning.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Lynne Murphy. 2018. ''The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-hate Relationship Between American and British English.'' Penguin.

Journal articles

*Steven Jones and M. Lynne Murphy. 2005. "Using corpora to investigate antonym acquisition," ''International Journal of Corpus Linguistics'' 10 (3), 401-422. *Steven Jones, Carita Paradis, M Lynne Murphy, and Caroline Willners. 2007. "Googling for ‘opposites’: A Web-based study of antonym canonicity," ''Corpora'' 2 (2), 129-154. *M. Lynne Murphy and Steven Jones, 2008. "Antonyms in children's and child-directed speech," ''First Language'' 28 (4), 403-430.

References

External links

*Murphy'
''Separated by a Common Language''
blog Linguists from the United States American women linguists Living people Semanticists University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Place of birth missing (living people) University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts alumni 1965 births {{Linguist-stub, date=January 2020