Prof Roger Lass
I received my PhD from Yale University in 1965 in Medieval English Language and Literature. I subsequently taught at Indiana University (1964-71) and the University of Edinburgh - both English Language and Linguistics (1972-82). From 1983 until my retirement in 2002 I was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Cape Town.
I have published extensively in my various fields of interest. Among the works I am most pleased with are: On Explaining Language Change (CUP, 1980), Historical Linguistics and Language Change (CUP, 1997) and my contributions to volumes 2 and 3 of The Cambridge History of the English Language (CUP, 1992 and 1999).
My collaboration (since 2002) with Meg Laing has led to numerous jointly written papers, of which I am also proud. I recently completed a book about bipolar disorder, including my own struggles with this condition: The Clouding Counties, Depression, Mind and Medicine (see URL above).
At present I am Principal Investigator of an AHRC-funded project, being undertaken in collaboration with Meg Laing, Keith Williamson and Rhona Alcorn, a Corpus of Narrative Etymologies from primitive Old English to early Middle English.
Publications
- Recent publications (PDF)