William A. Foley

William Auguste Foley (born April 21, 1949 in the USA) is an Australian professor of linguistics at the University of Sydney . Foley is recognized as a leader in the description of languages ​​in the Pacific Ocean . He is a co-founder of the Role and Reference Grammar and is considered an expert on the languages ​​of Papua New Guinea .

Professional career

Foley studied in the 1970s at the University of California, Berkeley , linguistics with Charles J. Fillmore , Larry M. Hyman and Alton L. Becker, where he obtained his Ph. D. with a syntactical study on the Austronesian languages . After graduating, he taught from 1976 to 1988 as a professor at the Australian National University in Canberra and has been professor of linguistics at the University of Sydney since 1988 .

Grammar theory

Foley developed a novel theory with Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. The syntax was no longer autonomous in it as in some other theories. Rather, semantics and pragmatics were central areas for analyzing the sentence structure. Since the semantic role structure was central and since the pragmatic level, which was previously called “reference”, also played a role, the new theory was called Role and Reference Grammar, which roughly translates as “semantic-case-role and pragmatic grammar “Means. The earliest publication on the Role and Reference Grammar is an essay co-authored with Van Valin in 1977. The first major theoretical foundation was the book Functional syntax and universal grammar, which Foley wrote in 1984 together with Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. .

In the years that followed, this theory became one of the best-known grammar theories, due on the one hand to the functional, semantic and pragmatic approach to the sentence analysis, and on the other hand to the typological adequacy at a time when functional-typological investigations were steadily increasing. This adequacy meant that as many, ideally: all languages ​​as possible should be describable with the theory.

However, Foley withdrew from this area completely and increasingly turned to language description.

Typology and field research

Foley continued studying languages ​​such as those in the Austronesian Islands through the 1980s. From 1977 to 1978 he was in an extended research stay in Papua New Guinea and spent over a period of 20 years many 2–3 months research stays on islands of the Pacific: the islands of Papua New Guinea, where one fifth of all languages ​​in the world are spoken , and the islands of Austronesia, where Foley studied three languages. He writes about this field research and its relationship to theoretical reflection:

"This fieldwork is the discipline which guides my continuing development of syntactic theories, so that for me theory and description constantly reinforce each other synergistically." (This fieldwork is the discipline that guides my further development of syntactic theories, so that theory and description for me constantly reinforce each other synergistically.)

In 1986 and 1991 he published two works on these languages, the first of which was published by Cambridge Language Surveys and provides an overview of the languages ​​of Papua New Guinea. It is considered the standard work for this.

Linguistic anthropologist

In 1997, Foley wrote anthropological linguistics preceded by field research. This anthropological conception is based on Wilhelm von Humboldt and Franz Boas .

In the three linguistic focal points of theory formation, typological field research and the preoccupation with linguistic anthropology, Foley mainly conducts research.

plant

• Foley, William A. (1976). Comparative syntax in Austronesian. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of California, Berkeley.
• Foley, William & Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. (1977). On the viability of the notion of 'subject' in universal grammar. In: Proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society. Berkeley: 293-320.
• Foley, William & Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. (1980). Role and Reference Grammar. In: Moravscik, EA & JA Wirth (eds.). Current approaches to syntax: 329-352.
• Foley, William & Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. (1984). Functional syntax and universal grammar. Cambridge.
• Foley, William A. (1986). The Papuan Languages ​​of New Guinea. Cambridge.
• Foley, William A. (1991). The Yimas Language of New Guinea. Stanford.
• Foley, William A. (1997). Anthropological Linguistics. An introduction to Oxford.
• Foley, William A. (2005). Semantic parameters and the unaccusative split in the Austronesian language family: Studies in Language 29 , 385-430.

Web links

• William A. Foley on the University of Sydney website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Website of Foleys at the University of Sydney ( Memento of the original from September 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.