For the X-Men character, see Larry Trask (comics).
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| Larry Trask | |
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| Born | Robert Lawrence Trask (1944-11-10)10 November 1944 Olean, New York, U.S. |
| Died | 27 March 2004(2004-03-27) (aged 59) Brighton, England |
| Spouses |
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| Academic background | |
| Education |
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| Thesis | Synchronic and Diachronic Studies in the Grammar of Basque (1984) |
| Doctoral advisor | Charles Ernest Bazell |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Linguist |
| Institutions |
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| Main interests | |
| Website | The Larry Trask Archive |
Robert Lawrence Trask (10 November 1944 – 27 March 2004) was an American-British professor of linguistics at the University of Sussex, and an authority on the Basque language and the field of historical linguistics.
Biography
Born in Olean, New York, he initially studied chemistry in his home country, but – after a brief stint in the Peace Corps – he took an interest in linguistics. He received his doctorate in linguistics from the University of London, and thereafter taught at various universities in the United Kingdom. He became a professor of linguistics at the University of Sussex.
He was considered an authority on the Basque language: his book The History of Basque (1997) is an essential reference on diachronic Basque linguistics and probably the best introduction to Basque linguistics as a whole. He was at work compiling an etymological dictionary of that language when he died; the unfinished work was posthumously published on the Internet by Max W. Wheeler. He was also an authority on historical linguistics, and had written about the problem of the origin of language. He also published two introductory books to linguistics: Language: The basics (1995) and Introducing Linguistics (coauthored with Bill Mayblin) (2000), and several dictionaries on different topics of this science: A dictionary of grammatical terms in linguistics (1993), A dictionary of phonetics and phonology (1996), A student's dictionary of language and linguistics (1997), Key concepts in language and linguistics (1999), The dictionary of historical and comparative linguistics (2000) and The Penguin dictionary of English grammar (2000).
Trask died on 27 March 2004 as a result of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), aged 59.
Publication
- Language Change (1994)
- Historical Linguistics (1996), ISBN 0-340-60758-0
- The Penguin Guide to Punctuation (1997)
- The History of Basque (1997), ISBN 0415131162
- The Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar (2000), ISBN 0-14-051464-3
- Time Depth in Historical Linguistics (co-editor) (2000), ISBN 1-902937-06-6
- Mind the Gaffe (2001), ISBN 0-14-051476-7
- How to Write Effective Emails (2005), ISBN 0-14-101719-8
References
- Trask, R. Larry (2008), Wheeler, Max W. (ed.), Etymological Dictionary of Basque (PDF), Falmer, UK: University of Sussex, retrieved 2 March 2020
- Coates, Richard (8 April 2004). "Obituary: Larry Trask". the Guardian. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
External links
- The Larry Trask Archive
- Interview with The Guardian
- Contributions to Ask-a-Linguist
- Larry Trask's review of The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar by Mark C. Baker
- Larry Trask's Guide to Punctuation
- Obituaries
- 1944 births
- 2004 deaths
- Academics of the University of Liverpool
- Academics of the University of Sussex
- Academics of the University of Westminster
- Academic staff of Middle East Technical University
- Alumni of SOAS University of London
- American emigrants to England
- American expatriate academics in the United Kingdom
- Linguists of Basque
- Deaths from motor neuron disease in England
- Historical linguists
- People from New York (state)
- 20th-century American linguists
- Alumni of the Polytechnic of Central London
- 20th-century British linguists