Talmy Givón

Thomas Givon
Born	June 22, 1936 Afula, British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel)
Occupation	Linguist

Thomas Givon (also known as Talmy Givón) (born June 22, 1936) is a linguist and writer. He is one of the founders of functionalism in linguistics and of the linguistics department at the University of Oregon based on his functional-adaptive approach to language and communication.

Givón earned his bachelor of science degree cum laude in agriculture from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1959. Attending UCLA, he received a Master of Science degree in horticulture in 1962, a C.Phil in Plant Biochemistry, a Master of Arts degree in linguistics in 1966, and a PhD in linguistics in 1969, as well as an TESL certificate in 1965.

Research Associate in Lexicography (Systems Development Corporation, 1966–1967); Research Associate in Bantu Linguistics (University of Zambia 1967–1968); Assistant Professor of Linguistics and African Languages (UCLA 1969–1974); Associate Professor of Linguistics (UCLA 1974–1979); Professor of Linguistics (UCLA 1969–1981); Professor of Linguistics (University of Oregon 1981–2002); Distinguished Professor (emeritus) of Linguistics and Cognitive Science (University of Oregon; 2002– ). Givón's last general linguistic project was The Genesis of Complex Syntax: Diachrony, Ontogeny, Cognition, Evolution.

His work covers many language areas (Semitic, African, Amerindian, Austronesian, Papuan, Sino-Tibetan, Indo-European), as well as many areas of theoretical linguistics: (syntax, semantics, pragmatics, second language acquisition, pidgins and creoles, discourse and text linguistics, methodology and philosophy of science, philosophy of language, typology and language universals, grammaticalization and historical syntax, cognitive science, language evolution).

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