After twelve years at the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London, I joined the then Department of General Linguistics in Edinburgh in 1965. I was Professor of Linguistics from 1977 until my retirement in 1993. My current status is Professor Emeritus and Honorary Fellow. Administrative duties having reduced the time available for research during my later years of paid employment (01.08.1986–31.07.1989 – Dean of the Faculty of Arts; 01.01.1991–30.09.1993 – Vice-Principal), I have spent the years since 1993 trying to catch up, except where the chance of a temporary appointments overseas has proved to be an irresistible temptation: 1994–1995 – International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan (Professor of Linguistics and International Communication); 1995–1996 – Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, India (first holder of the Vaikom Muhammad Basheer Chair – modern Indian literature). Those interested in more detailed information about my life in linguistics may care to look at my contribution to the Philological Society volume of Personal Histories listed below among my publications (2002c). This list is restricted to items published since the year of my retirement.
1993a. National
Myths in Renaissance
1993b. Scavenger’s
Son. Translation from Malayalam, with introduction, of
Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai’s novel Tottiyute
makan.
1994a. (With C. Moseley) Atlas of the World’s Languages.
1994b. The Encyclopedia of
Language and Linguistics.
1994c. ‘ “Balyakalasakhi”
– “Victoria”: oru vicintanam’ (Malayalam: ‘Balyakalasakhi
and
1994d. ‘Basheer’s
diversity’. Haritham, Kottayam, No. 4,
pp. 11–18.
1995a. (With E. F. K. Koerner) Concise History of the Language Sciences:
from the Sumerians to the Cognitivists.
1995b. ‘The rise and fall of
language’. The Geographical Magazine,
Vol. LXVII, No. 8, pp. 18–21.
1995c. ‘Kalaykkullil kalaye olippicca
kalakaran’ (‘An artist whose art conceals art’). Matrbhumi,
1996. ‘Japanese and Tamil: some typological analogies’. Asian Cultural Studies 22, pp. 109–20.
1997a. Malayalam.
1997b. ‘Pattummayute atu: satyamo mithyayo?’
(Malayalam: ‘Pattumma’s Goat: fact or fiction?’) Bhasaposini, Kottayam, Vol. 23, No. 1 (July 1996), pp. 74–76.
1997c. ‘Tamil and typology’. In R. Nagaswamy (ed.), Prof.
V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar Centenary Volume. Studies in South Indian History and Culture, Chennai, V. R.
Ramachandra Dikshitar Centenary Committee, pp. 241–248.
1997d. ‘Thakazhi and a story
of three generations’. Haritham,
Kottayam, No. 4, pp. 34–39.
1998a. Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, Svatantryasamara kathakal (Malayalam:
‘Stories of the freedom movement’), Kottayam, D. C. Books. 170 pp. Edited with
an Introduction (pp. 9–33).
1998b. ‘Basheer
and the freedom struggle’. Frontline,
1998c. ‘ “Me
Grandad ’ad an Elephant!” a Muslim classic from
1999. Basir:
malayalattinre sargavismayam (Malayalam: critical studies on the novels and
stories of Vaikom Muhammed Basheer).
2000a. Seikai minzoku gengo chizu.
Atlas of the World’s Languages. Japanese translation of
1994a.
2000b. (Joint
Editor-in-Chief with Roy Harris) Linguisticoliterary:
A Festschrift for Professor D.S. Dwivedi.
2000c. ‘Some
structural similarities between Tamil and Japanese’. In R. E. Asher
and Roy Harris (eds), Linguisticoliterary: A Festschrift for Professor D. S. Dwivedi. Delhi, Pilgrims Book Pvt. Ltd. pp. 60–69.
2000d. ‘R. H. Robins (1921–2000)’. The Henry Sweet Society for the History of
Linguistic Ideas: Bulletin, Issue No. 35 (Nov. 2000), pp. 11–13.
2002a. (With
2002b. (with
2002c. ‘R. E. Asher’. In Keith Brown
and Vivien Law (eds), Linguistics in Britain: Personal Histories (Publications of the
Philological Society, 36).
2003a. ‘I can’t help blossoming: Review’. In in the sacred navel of our dreams. Essays on Ayyappa
Paniker’s poetry. Kottayam,
Current Books, pp. 21–24.
2003b.
‘Subject-predicate agreement in Malayalam’. In B.
Ramakrishna Reddy (ed.) Agreement in
Dravidian Languages. Chennai, International
Institute of Tamil Studies. pp. 84–93.
2004a. ‘Preface’. In Jean-Luc Chevillard (ed.), South-Indian
Horizons. Felicitation Volume
for François Gros on the occasion of his 70th birthday
(Publications du Département d’Indologie 94), Pondichéry, Institut Français de
Pondichéry/Paris, École Française d’Extrême-Orient. pp.
ix–xv.
2004b. ‘Vaikom Muhammed
Basheer: Freedom fighting into fiction’. In Jean-Luc
Chevillard (ed.), South-Indian Horizons. Felicitation Volume for François Gros on
the occasion of his 70th birthday (Publications du Département
d’Indologie 94), Pondichéry, Institut Français de Pondichéry/Paris, École
Française d’Extrême-Orient. pp. 107–125.
2004c. Armstrong, Lilias
Eveline (1882–1937).
2004d. Ullmann, Stephen
(1914–76).
2004e.
‘Foreword’. In William Hardcastle & Janet Beck (eds),
A Figure of Speech: a Festschrift for
John Laver.
2004f. (With
Elinor Keane) ‘Diphthongs in Tamil’. In William Hardcastle &
Janet Beck (eds), A
Figure of Speech: a Festschrift for John Laver.
2004g.
‘Foreword’. In Achamma Coilparampil Chandersekaran, Daughters of Kerala: Twenty-five Short
Stories by Award-Winning Authors. Tucson, Arizona. Hats Off Books. pp. vii–x.
2004h.
(With R. Radhakrishnan) A Tamil Prose
Reader: Selections from Contemporary Tamil Prose with Notes and Glossary, 2nd
impression. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. x + 237 pp.
(1st impression 1971).
2004j. (With V. Abdulla) Wind Flowers: Contemporary Malayalam Short Fiction. New Delhi, Penguin Books. xvi + 208 pp.