R. M. W. Dixon
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Robert Malcolm Ward Dixon (Gloucester, England, 25 January 1939[1]) is a Professor of Linguistics and formerly Director of the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.
Dixon has written on many areas of linguistic theory and fieldwork, being particularly noted for his work on the Aboriginal languages of Australia. He has published grammars of Dyirbal[2] and Yidiny[3] as well as non-Australian languages like Boumaa Fijian[4] and Jarawara[5].
Dixon's views began to depart "rather radically" from accepted views about four decades ago. [6] This has led him to reject the concept of Pama-Nyungan languages. He also feels that the standard "family-tree" model of linguistic change is only applicable in some circumstances, thinking that a "punctuated equilibrium" model, based on the theory of the same name in evolutionary biology, is more appropriate for the Australian languages. Dixon puts forth his theory in The Rise and Fall of Languages[7].
He is the author of a number of other books including Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development Cambridge University Press[8] and Ergativity [9]
In addition to scholarly works, Dixon also published, in 1983, a memoir of his early fieldwork in Australia titled Searching For Aboriginal Languages. The book provides a glimpse at linguistic fieldwork as it was done in that era as well as an interesting historical look at the appalling treatment of Aboriginal peoples of Australia that continued right into the 1960s. Additionally, Dixon is the co-author, with John Godrich, of the definitive discography of American prewar blues and gospel recordings, Blues and Gospel Records: 1890-1943 [10].
[edit] See also
[edit] References
(The list below is incomplete; for a full publication list, see R.M.W. Dixon's CV)
- ^ Robert Malcolm Ward Dixon - Curriculum Vitae. http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/StaffPages/dixonCV.pdf
- ^ Dixon, R.M.W. 1972. The Dyirbal language of North Queensland ( Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, 9). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Dixon, R.M.W. 1977. A grammar of Yidiny (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, 19). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Dixon, R.M.W. 1988. A grammar of Boumaa Fijian. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- ^ Dixon, R.M.W. 2004. The Jarawara language of southern Amazonia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Wurm S.A. 1972 Languages of Australia and Tamania p.36
- ^ Dixon, R.M.W. 1997. The rise and fall of languages. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Dixon, R.M.W. 2002. Australian languages: their nature and development. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Dixon, R.M.W. 1994. Ergativity (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, 69). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Edward Komara. 1998. Review of: Blues and Gospel Records, 1890-1943 by Robert M. W. Dixon; John Godrich; Howard Rye. Notes, Second Series, Vol. 55, No. 2 (Dec., 1998), pp. 361-363 [1]
