Frank R. Palmer Explained

Frank R. Palmer
Birth Name:Frank Robert Palmer
Birth Date:9 April 1922
Birth Place:England
Nationality:British
Alma Mater:New College, Oxford
Influences:John Rupert Firth
Discipline:Linguist

Frank Robert Palmer (9 April 19221 November 2019) was a British linguist who was instrumental in the development of the Department of Linguistic Science at the University of Reading.[1]

Academic career

As a child, Palmer lived with his parents in Kendleshire (South Gloucestershire). Palmer took his first school lessons at the Hambrook School (Hambrook), enrolling there on 30 August 1926, as recorded in the Admission Register 1922–1946. On 2 September 1932, he went to Bristol Grammar School.[2] Later, Palmer was educated at New College, Oxford.

In the 1940s, Palmer was a member of the British Army, where he attained the military rank of Lieutenant. After the end of World War II, Palmer became a member of the teaching staff at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, with a post of Lecturer from 1950 to 1960.[3] John Rupert Firth was the Head of Department at the time and encouraged there a number of his disciples and colleagues, many who later became well known linguists, to carry out research on a number of African and Oriental languages. Under his leadership, Palmer worked on Ethiopean languages, T.F. Mitchell on Arabic and Berber languages, Michael Halliday on Chinese, and Richard Keith Sprigg on the phonology of Asian languages.

In 1952, Palmer travelled in Ethiopia for one year carrying out fieldwork in the local languages.[4] His scientific interests had been the Ethiopian languages for instance Tigre, Bilin, Amharic languages, and the language of the Agaw people from the group of the Cushitic languages.

Palmer became Professor of Linguistics at University College, Bangor, in 1960. In 1965, he and a number of Bangor colleagues moved to the University of Reading to establish the Department of Linguistic Science. Palmer was appointed Professor of Linguistic Science and under his headship the department quickly developed an international reputation.[5]

In 1955, he was inducted into the Linguistic Society of America.[6] In 1971, Palmer was appointed one of the Professorship Holders of the Linguistic Society of America.[7] In 1975,[8] [9] he was made a Fellow of the British Academy, and later of the Academia Europaea. He retired in 1987 with the title of Emeritus Professor of Linguistic Science.

Palmer was the editor of the Journal of Linguistics from 1969 until 1979. He enjoyed a worldwide reputation and consequently travelled widely in North and South America, Asia, North Africa, and Europe. In 1981, he was a visiting lecturer at the Beijing Foreign Studies University.

He was one of the contributors to The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.

Palmer's Mood and Modality

Palmer treated modality in language or languages generally.[10] In his book Mood and Modality, first published in 1986, Palmer developed a typological study of modality or mood. Another publication Modality and the English Modals had already appeared in 1979. Palmer pointed out the current interest in mood and modality, as well as in grammatical typology in general.

Classification of modality in modal systems

Modality can be classified as Propositional Modality and Event Modality. Propositional Modality can be further subdivided into

Event Modality in turn can be of two types:

In Deontic Modality, the conditioning factors are external to the relevant individual or speaker, whereas with Dynamic Modality they are internal.[13]

Partial list of written works

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Palmer_Frank Academy of Europe: Frank Palmer
  2. http://www.frenchaymuseumarchives.co.uk Hambrook School Admission Register 1922–1946
  3. http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/amit/books/palmer-1984-grammar.html Book excerptise: Grammar, Frank Robert Palmer
  4. Anastasios Tsangalidēs; Roberta Facchinetti; Frank Robert Palmer: Studies on English Modality: In Honour of Frank Palmer. Band 111 von Linguistic Insights. Studies in Language and Communication, Peter Lang, Oxford 2009,, p. 9.
  5. Book: 1982 . Crystal . Linguistic Controversies . xi-xii . Edward Arnold . 0-7131-6349-6 .
  6. http://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/life-members-name-0 Member list of LSA
  7. http://www.linguisticsociety.org/meetings-institutes/institutes/named-professorships Past Linguistic Institutes: Named Professorships
  8. Web site: Memoirs of Fellows XIX. 2021-09-13. The British Academy. en.
  9. Web site: Memoir by David Crystal FBA and P. H. Matthews FBA. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210913103349/https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/2739/19-Memoirs-20-Palmer.pdf. September 13, 2021. British Academy.
  10. http://www.mrdowoportal.com/uploads/1/0/1/8/10183165/c._kreidler_introducing_english_semanticsbookfi.org_2.pdf Charles W. Kreidler: Introducing English Semantics. Routledge, London / New York (1998), pp. 95 and 248
  11. See also or compare Epistemic modal logic.
  12. See also or compare Deontic logic.
  13. https://linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-2018/ Terence Langendoen: Palmer, Mood and Modality, 2nd ed. LINGUIST List 12.2018, Fri Aug 10 2001

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