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John Jerome Ohala (July 19, 1941[1] – August 22, 2020[2]) was a linguist specializing in phonetics and phonology. He was a Professor Emeritus in linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley.
John Ohala | |
---|---|
Born | July 19, 1941 |
Died | August 23, 2020 | (aged 79)
Spouse | Manjari Agrawal (m. 1969) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles (PhD) |
Thesis | Aspects of the control and production of speech (1969) |
Doctoral advisor | Peter Ladefoged |
Academic work | |
Discipline | linguistics |
Sub-discipline | phonology |
Institutions | University of California, Berkeley |
Doctoral students | John Kingston |
Career
editHe received his PhD in linguistics in 1969 from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); his graduate advisor was Peter Ladefoged. He is best known for his insistence that many aspects of languages' phonologies (a.k.a. "sound patterns") derive from physical and physiological constraints which are independent of language and thus have no place in the "grammar" of a language, i.e. what speakers have to learn inductively from exposure to the speech community into which they are born.[3]
He also proposed that ethological principles influence certain aspects of languages' prosodic patterns, sound symbolism, and facial expressions, such as lip and brow movements.
References
edit- ^ "John Ohala, Emeritus Lab Director". University of California, Berkeley. Archived from the original on June 27, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
- ^ Ashby, Michael (August 24, 2020). "Professor John Ohala, 1941–2020". International Phonetic Association. Archived from the original on September 22, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
- ^ Ohala, John J. (1990). "There is no interface between phonology and phonetics: a personal view". Journal of Phonetics. 18: 153–171.
Further reading
edit- Johnson, Keith (2020). "In Memoriam: John J. Ohala (1941–2020)". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 50 (3): 452–455. doi:10.1017/S0025100320000316.