Professor Keith Allan
Qualifications and Positions
- BA Honours (Leeds)
- MLitt
- PhD (Edinburgh)
- FAHA
- Emeritus Professor of Linguistics
- Editor of the Australian Journal of Linguistics
Background
After schooling in London I went to do drama at Leeds; but once there, took up linguistics instead. I went from Leeds to Ghana and thence to Edinburgh in the late sixties to do an M.Litt. (the thesis was on aspect in English). Africa called again, and after three years in northern Nigeria, I signed up for a doctorate at Edinburgh on NP countability. A year in Essex and a semester in Germany, was followed by a couple of years in Kenya. With my doctorate almost in hand, I arrived at Monash. And here, but for a year in Arizona and a few odd months in other exotic spots, I have stayed until retiring to rural Queensland.
I prefer students who have the urge to discover what there is to know and who question the current paradigms in linguistics -- even those I hold dear. Consequently, I abhor the current trend (at least in Australia) for universities to mimic high-schools.
Research Areas
My research interests focus mainly on aspects of meaning in language, with a secondary interest in the history and philosophy of linguistics. As will be evident to readers of the works listed among my selected publications, I see language as a form of social interactive behaviour believing this to be an important consideration in any thorough account of meaning in natural language.
Other
- Works in press and in progress
- The Australian Journal of Linguistics
- The Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics, 2nd edn.
- Language Sciences
- The Journal of Pragmatics
- Vantage Theory
- Speech acts (1998)
- Theses supervised
- Personal page
Contact
Email: Keith.Allan@monash.edu