Robert Anderson Hall Jr. (April 4, 1911December 2, 1997) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the " United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...

and specialist in the

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language f ...

. He was a professor of

Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

and the first president of The Wodehouse Society (US). Hall was an early promoter of the linguistics of

Creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. Wh ...

s, and published broadly within the field. Under the auspices of the United States Armed Services Institute, he wrote a structuralist description of Melanesian Pidgin English in 1943. Among other creoles and pidgin languages, he studied

Sranan Sranan Tongo (also Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue," Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a ''lingua franca'' by approximately 550,000 people in Suriname. Developed originally am ...

of Surinam and Haitian Creole. Hall organized the successful spoken language learning method for soldiers in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Hall criticized

Basic English Basic English (British American Scientific International and Commercial English) is an English-based controlled language created by the linguist and philosopher Charles Kay Ogden as an international auxiliary language, and as an aid for teac ...

because it encouraged the use of multi-meaning words (such as ''get'') under the guise of simplicity. Hall took the controversial view that the

Kensington Runestone The Kensington Runestone is a slab of greywacke stone covered in Runic alphabet, runes that was allegedly discovered in central Minnesota in 1898. Olof Öhman, a Swedish emigration to the United States, Swedish immigrant, reported that he uneart ...

, a purported relic of an early

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visit to what is now

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

in North America, was authentic. Hall was an outspoken critic of the generative tradition of linguistics emanating from Noam Chomsky, for example remarking that "Chomskyan transformationalism rejects a scientific approach for an anti-scientific one."''American Linguistics: 1925-1969. Three essays with a Preface to the Reprint.'' Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (1976), p. 91

Notable works

*''An Analytical Grammar of the Hungarian Language'' (1938) *''Melanesian Pidgin English: Grammar, Texts, Vocabulary'' (1943) *''New Ways to Learn a Foreign Language'' (1946) *''Leave Your Language Alone'' (1950) *''Haitian Creole: Grammar, Texts, Vocabulary'' (1953) *''Hands Off Pidgin English!'' (1955) *''Italian for Modern Living'' (1959, repr. 1974) *''Idealism in Romance Linguistics'' (1963) *''Introductory Linguistics'' (1964) *''Pidgin and Creole Languages'' (1966) *''An Essay on Language'' (1968) *''External History of the Romance Languages'' (1974) *''The Comic Style of P. G. Wodehouse'' (1974) *''Stormy Petrel in Linguistics'' (essays, some polemics) (1975) *''American Linguistics: 1925-1969. Three essays with a Preface to the Reprint.'' Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (1976) *''Proto-Romance Phonology'' (1976) *''Language, Literature, and Life'' (selected essays) (1978) *''Linguistics and Pseudo-Linguistics'' (selected essays) (1978) *''The Kensington Rune-Stone is Genuine'' (1982) *''A Life for Language: a Biographical Memoir of Leonard Bloomfield'' (1990)

References

External links

Obituary
Linguists from the United States 1911 births 1997 deaths 20th-century linguists {{US-linguist-stub