Moira Yip (b. 1949) is a British-American linguist.

Biography

She earned her PhD in Linguistics in 1980 at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

as a student of

Morris Halle Morris Halle, Pinkowitz (; July 23, 1923 – April 2, 2018), was a Latvian-born American linguist who was an Institute Professor, and later professor emeritus, of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The father of "modern ...

. She retired from her position as Professor of Linguistics at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

(UCL) in 2009. While at UCL she also was co-director of the

Centre for Human Communication The first Centre for Human Communication was founded in 1971 by Kevin Kingsland, a member of the Publications & Communications Board of the British Psychological Society and Venika Kingsland in Devon, England, to provide an intentional centre for ...

and Pro-Provost for China. Before taking up the position at UCL in 1999, she was Professor of Linguistics and Acting Dean at the

University of California-Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 ...

(1992-1999) and Associate Professor at

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

(1982-1992). Moira Yip worked on a wide range of issues in theoretical phonology, and particularly on the phonology of Chinese. Her publications include papers on

reduplication In linguistics, reduplication is a Morphology (linguistics), morphological process in which the Root (linguistics), root or Stem (linguistics), stem of a word, part of that, or the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change. The cla ...

, morpho-phonology, prosodic phonology, and feature theory. Her frequently cited dissertation on the ''Tonal phonology of Chinese'' was published in the ''Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics'' series (Garland). In 2002 she published the first modern textbook on

tone Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...

in the Cambridge University Press linguistics textbook series. Her 1988 journal article on the

Obligatory Contour Principle The obligatory contour principle (frequently abbreviated OCP) is a hypothesis in autosegmental phonology that states that (certain) consecutive identical features are banned in underlying representations. The OCP is most frequently cited when discus ...

was important in extending the understanding and application of this principle in pre-

Optimality Theory Optimality theory (frequently abbreviated OT) is a linguistic model proposing that the observed forms of language arise from the optimal satisfaction of conflicting constraints. OT differs from other approaches to phonological analysis, which ty ...

phonology. She is married to business academic George Yip. Since 2017 she has authored a wildlife blog, https://eyesonthewild.blog.

Key publications

* Yip, Moira J. 1980. The tonal phonology of Chinese. PhD dissertation, MIT. * Yip, Moira. 1988. The Obligatory Contour Principle and Phonological Rules: a Loss of Identity. ''Linguistic Inquiry'', 19 (1), 65-100. * Yip, Moira. 1989. Contour tones. ''Phonology'', 6(1), 149-174. * Yip, Moira. 2002. ''Tone''. Cambridge University Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yip, Moira Linguists from the United Kingdom British women linguists Living people MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni 1949 births University of California, Irvine faculty Brandeis University faculty University College London Phonologists from the United Kingdom Academics of University College London