Barbara Abbott
Barbara Kenyon Abbott | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1943 Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation(s) | Linguist, Professor Emerita |
| Years active | 1976–2006 (professor at Michigan State University) |
| Known for | Work in formal semantics and pragmatics, interpretation of reference and noun phrases |
| Notable work | Reference (2010), The Oxford Handbook of Reference (2019, editor) |
Barbara Kenyon Abbott (b. 1943) is a distinguished American linguist who completed her doctoral studies in linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley in 1976, under the mentorship of George Lakoff. From 1976 until 2006, she held a professorship in linguistics and philosophy at Michigan State University, where she currently holds the title of Professor Emerita.
Career
Abbott’s scholarly work centers on formal semantics and pragmatics, with a particular emphasis on the interpretation of reference and noun phrases. Her research explores philosophical dimensions of lexical meaning, presupposition, and conditionals. She has played a pivotal role in bridging formal semantics—using logical frameworks to analyze natural language—and analytical pragmatics, especially regarding the use of definite and indefinite noun phrases in English. Her investigations into definiteness across various languages shed light on its connection to concepts such as familiarity and uniqueness. The monograph Reference delves into how language users employ linguistic expressions to denote entities, addressing a core discussion among linguists and philosophers.
Throughout her academic career at Michigan State University, Abbott’s focus remained on semantics and pragmatics. Her book Reference scrutinizes whether reference constitutes a two-place or three-place relation. She has contributed numerous articles to leading journals including Natural Language Semantics, Language, Linguistics and Philosophy, Journal of Pragmatics, and Mind. Among her significant publications are "Some Problems In Giving An Adequate Model-Theoretic Account of Cause" (1974) and "Some Remarks on Referentiality" (2011).
In recognition of her commitment to fostering equal opportunity and academic excellence, Abbott was honored with an Outstanding Faculty & Staff Award at MSU in 1993. She has been invited to present at several international conferences such as the Third International Conference in Contrastive Semantics and Pragmatics (Shanghai, 2005), the International Cognitive Science Conference (Pomona College, 2005), and the Second Conference on Concept Types and Frames in Language, Cognition, and Science (Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, 2009).
Abbott has contributed her expertise as a member of editorial boards for journals including Journal of Pragmatics, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, and Intercultural Pragmatics. Additionally, she has served as a peer reviewer for esteemed publications like Philosophy of Science and Language.
Personal life
Raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, Abbott currently lives in Michigan alongside her husband, Larry Hauser.
Books
- Abbott, B. 2010. Reference. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Gundel, Jeanette K. and Barbara Abbott, editors. 2019. The Oxford Handbook of Reference. Oxford University Press.
Notable articles
- Abbott, B. 1976. "Right node raising as a test for constituenthood," Linguistic Inquiry.
- Abbott, B. 1993. “A pragmatic account of the definiteness effect in existential sentences,” Journal of Pragmatics 19, 39–55.
- Abbott, B. 1995. "Some remarks on specificity," Linguistic Inquiry 26:2, 341–7.
- Abbott, B. 1996. "Doing without a partitive constraint," In J. Hoeksema (ed.) Partitives: Studies on the Syntax and Semantics of Partitive and Related Constructions.
- Abbott, B. 1997. “Definiteness and existentials,” Language.
- Abbott, B. 1997. “A note on the nature of 'Water'." Mind 106, 311–319.
- Abbott, B. 1999. "Support for a unique theory of definiteness," Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistics Theory (SALT) 9.
- Abbott, B. 1999. “Water = H2O." Mind 108, 145–148.
- Abbott, B. 2000. “Presuppositions as nonassertions,” Journal of Pragmatics, 32:1419–1437.
- Abbott, B. 2002. "Donkey Demonstratives," Natural Language Semantics.
- Abbott, B. 2002. "Definiteness and Proper Names: Some Bad News for the Description Theory," Journal of Semantics.
- Abbott, B. 2003. "Some notes on quotation," Belgian Journal of Linguistics.
- Abbott, B. 2003. "A reply to Szabo's 'Descriptions and uniqueness,'" Philosophical Studies.
- Abbott, B. 2004. “Definiteness and Indefiniteness,” in L Horn and G Ward (eds.) The Handbook of Pragmatics. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
- Abbott, B. 2006. “Definite and Indefinite," Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.
- Abbott, B. 2008. “Presuppositions and Common Ground,” Linguistics and Philosophy.
- Abbott, B. 2010. “Where have some of the presuppositions gone?” in B. Birner and G. Ward (eds.), Drawing the Boundaries of Meaning: Neo-Gricean Studies in Pragmatics and Semantics in Honor of Laurence R. Horn. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
- Abbott, B. 2011. "Out of control: The semantics of some infinitival VP complements," In Pragmatics and Autolexical Grammar: In honor of Jerry Sadock, edited by Etsuyo Yuasa et al., pp. 229–242. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
- Horn, L., and B. Abbott. 2012. "(in)definiteness and implicature," In W. Kabasenche et al., eds., Reference and Referring. MIT Press.
- Abbott, B. 2013. "Linguistic solutions to philosophical problems: The case of knowing how." In John Hawthorne & Jason Turner (eds.), Philosophical Perspectives 27, 1–21.