EDUCATION
University of California, Berkeley: M.A. in English, 1964; Ph.D., 1966.
• Dissertation: “The Poetic Language of the Old English Meters of Boethius.”
Freie Universität, West Berlin, Germany: student in Anglistik, 1961-1962.
• Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst “Dankstipendium” fellowship.
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.: B.A. with high honors in English, 1961.
• Editor in chief, The Cornell Daily Sun, 1960-61.
• Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, 1961.
TEACHING
MacMurray College, Jacksonville, Illinois: Professor of English, 1981-; Associate Professor, 1973-81.
• Courses: freshman composition and advanced writing, introduction to poetry and short fiction, survey of English literature, medieval literature, Chaucer, survey of American literature, the novel, contemporary poetry, structure and history of English, American dialects, introduction to linguistics, dictionaries, word origins, languages of the world, new words, beginning Latin, news writing and reporting, Ideas in Perspective (core curriculum).
• United Methodist Board of Higher Education Award for Teaching Excellence, October 2000.
• Instructor at Jacksonville Correctional Center (program administered by MacMurray College), 1989, 1995-2003.
University of California, Riverside: Assistant Professor of English, 1966-73.
• Courses: composition, survey of English literature, Old English, literary criticism, English metrical systems, history and structure of English, American dialects, introduction to linguistics, research methods and bibliography.
• University of California Extension, Riverside: English grammar.
University of California, Santa Cruz: California Summer Program in Linguistics, 1971-73.
• Courses: California English, current topics in linguistics.
ADMINISTRATION
MacMurray College: Registrar and Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs, 2003-12.
• Chair, Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, 2012-.
• Chair, English Department, 1973-83, 1997-2000.
• Director, Program in Journalism, 1975-2003.
University of California, Riverside: founding chair, Committee on Linguistics, 1967.
California Summer Program in Linguistics, University of California, Santa Cruz: Co-director, 1973.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Dialect Society: Executive Secretary, 1981-.
Dictionary Society of North America
International Association of Forensic Linguistics
Linguistic Society of America
Medieval Academy of America
Modern Language Association of America
American Association of University Professors
PUBLICATIONS—AMERICAN ENGLISH AND LINGUISTICS
OK: The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. xvi + 207 pages. Revised paperback edition, March 2012.
Presidential Voices: Speaking Styles from George Washington to George W. Bush. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. xv + 334 pages.
Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. xvi + 207 pages.
How We Talk: American Regional English Today. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. xvi + 207 pages.
The World in So Many Words. [The story of one word from each of the hundreds of languages that have given words to English.] Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. xiv + 300 pages.
America in So Many Words: Words That Have Shaped America. With David K. Barnhart. [The story of a word or phrase for each year in American history.] Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. xii + 308 pages.
Newsletter of the American Dialect Society. Editor, Vol. 8 (1976)-Vol.35 (2003). Three issues annually, 12 or more pages each.
“Fixin’ to Learn Localisms? Here’s a Non-Spendy Way.” Chronicle of Higher Education 47.38 (1 June 2001): B5.
“Data Mining.” American Speech 75.3 (Fall 2000): 237-239.
Review of American English: Dialects and Variation by Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes. Language in Society 29.2 (2000): 294-296.
“The South in DARE [Dictionary of American Regional English].” In Language Variety in the South Revisited, ed. Cynthia Bernstein et al. (Tuscaloosa: Univ. of Alabama Press, 1997), 266-276.
“Typography” [of the Century Dictionary]. Dictionaries 17 (1996): 17-28.
An Index by Region, Usage, and Etymology to the Dictionary of American Regional English, Volumes I and II. Co-editor with Luanne von Schneidemesser. Publication of the American Dialect Society 77 (1993). xxiii + 178 pp.
“Where Is Dialectology Going?” Quaderni di Semantica 12.2 (December 1991): 292-297 and 13.1 (June 1992): 121-124. (Part of roundtable discussion.)
“Double or Nothing: An End to Final Prepositions.” Note in American Speech 62.2 (Summer 1987): 182-183.
“Finding Words in Online Databases.” In Papers from the Fifth International Conference on Methods in Dialectology, ed. H.J. Warkentyne (Victoria, B.C.: Dept. of Linguistics, University of Victoria, 1985), 317-326.
“A Reason for Reagan.” (Pronunciations of his name.) Names 33.4 (Dec. 1985): 259-267. (Also guest editor of the entire issue, with the theme “Names in Dialect.”)
“Newspaper Stylebooks: Strictures Teach Tolerance.” In The English Language Today, ed. Sidney Greenbaum (Oxford: Pergamon, 1985), 106-115.
“The Pacific Coast: End of the Line.” In Dialectology, Linguistics, Literature: Festschrift for Carroll E. Reed, ed. Wolfgang W. Moelleken, Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik 367 (Göppingen: Kummerle Verlag, 1984), 150-167.
“A Brief Annotated Bibliography on Chicano English.” In Form and Function in Chicano English, ed. Jacob Ornstein-Galicia (Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1984), 231-247.
“Birth of a Word.” (Note on psychobabble.) American Speech 56 (Fall 1981): 206.
“Pizza as Pie in Albuquerque.” Note in American Speech 56 (Summer 1981): 149-150.
Chicano English. Language in Education: Theory and Practice, 21. Arlington, Va.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1979. 32 pp.
A Guide to the California-Nevada Field Records of the Linguistic Atlas of the Pacific Coast. To accompany microfilm publication of the Field Records. In collaboration with David W. Reed, director, Linguistic Atlas of the Pacific Coast. Berkeley: Bancroft Library, University of California, 1979. 162-page typescript to be reproduced on demand.
“The Study of California Chicano English.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language, No. 2 (Spring 1974): 53-58.
“The Study (or, Non-Study) of California Chicano English.” In Southwest Areal Linguistics, ed. Garland D. Bills (San Diego: Institute for Cultural Pluralism, San Diego State University, 1974), 97-106.
“Mexican-American English in Southern California.” Western Review (Silver City, N.M.) 9 (Spring 1972): 13-21.
“Directions of Change in Southern California English.” Journal of English Linguistics 6 (March 1972): 28-34.
Riverside English: The Spoken Language of a Southern California Community. Riverside: Univ. of California, 1971. iv + 40 pp.
PUBLICATIONS—MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATURE
“Gawain’s Number.” In Essays in the Numerical Analysis of Medieval Literature, ed. Caroline D. Eckhardt (Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1980), 141-155.
“Supplement to a Bibliography of Purity (Cleanness), 1864-1972.” Chaucer Review 10 (Spring 1976): 367-372.
“Silent Knight: ‘Sum for Cortaysye’?” Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 213 (1976): 338-42. Refers to l. 247 of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Poetic Diction in the Old English Meters of Boethius. De Proprietatibus Litterarum, Series Practica, 50. The Hague: Mouton, 1973. x + 166 pp.
“Sir Gawain and you.” Chaucer Review 5.3 (Winter 1971): 165-178. Additional note in 6.2 (Fall 1971): 157.
“Ornamentale Tiermotive in der altenglischen Versdichtung.” In Das Tier in der Dichtung, ed. Ute Schwab (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1970), 74-90, 268-71. In German.
“Dante and E.E. Cummings.” Comparative Literature Studies 7 (Sept. 1970): 374-86.
“ ‘West’ in Maldon.” Papers on Language and Literature 6 (Summer 1970): 314-316.
“On the Authorship and Originality of the Meters of Boethius.” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 71 (1970): 185-187.
“Ten Natural Animals in Beowulf.” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 64 (1963): 378-379.
PUBLICATIONS—WRITING
Writing to the Point. 6th edition. Roseville, Minnesota: Birch Grove Publishing, 20008. 128 pp.
Research to the Point. [Textbook on the research paper.] 2nd edition. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1995. ix + 214 pp. Also Instructor’s Guide, vii + 55 pp.
Teaching guides for The New Yorker magazine’s Education Program.
INVITED LECTURE
“Presidential Voices.” Eighteenth annual Peter Tamony Memorial Lecture on American Language, University of Missouri, Columbia, April 3, 2003.
CONSULTING
Special Contributor and Consultant on Dialects for the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fourth edition, 2000.
Consultant to Merriam-Webster, 1998.
Consultant to law firms and police departments on a variety of linguistic matters, 1971-.
|
