R. E. Asher

Summary CV

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.

Research interests

My research interests have always been broad, so much so that the relationship that holds between them may be a little obscure. Within linguistic theory they include minimally phonetics, phonology, grammar and typology. Areas of interest, going well beyond this, include French literature of the Renaissance, Dravidian linguistics (with particular focus on Tamil and Malayalam), and the history of prose fiction in Malayalam and Tamil.

Publications 1993 -

1993a. National Myths in Renaissance France: Francus, Samothes and the Druids, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. xiii + 269 pp.

1993b. Scavenger’s Son. Translation from Malayalam, with introduction, of Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai’s novel Tottiyute makan. Oxford, Heinemann. xii + 124 pp. Japanese retranslation by Motoo Yamagiwa, Tokyo, 2003.

1994a. (With C. Moseley) Atlas of the World’s Languages. London, Routledge. viii + 372 pp. Co-editor, and author of section on ‘South Asia’ (pp. 203–218).

1994b. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Oxford, Pergamon Press. 10 volumes. xlvii + 5644 pp. Editor-in-Chief; section editor for Animal Communication, Countries and Languages, and History of Linguistics (Asia); and author of forty-three articles.

1994c. ‘ “Balyakalasakhi” – “Victoria”: oru vicintanam’ (Malayalam: ‘Balyakalasakhi and Victoria: a comparative study’). Appended to Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Balyakalasakhi: Suvarna jubili patippu (‘Golden Jubilee edition’) (ed. M. M. Basheer), Kottayam, D C Books, pp. 129–42.

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. Oxford/New York/Tokyo, Pergamon. xii + 497 pp.

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, Calicut, 5 July 1995, p. 4. Reprinted in Current Books Bulletin 145 (July 1995), pp. 6–7.

1996. ‘Japanese and Tamil: some typological analogies’. Asian Cultural Studies 22, pp. 109–20.

1997a. Malayalam. London, Routledge. xxvi + 491 pp.

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, Chennai, India, Vol. 15, No. 2 (6 Feb. 1998), pp. 84–86.

1998c. ‘ “Me Grandad ’ad an Elephant!” a Muslim classic from South India’. In Rupert Snell and I. M. P. Raeside (eds), Classics of Modern South Asian Literature, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 13–29.

1999. Basir: malayalattinre sargavismayam (Malayalam: critical studies on the novels and stories of Vaikom Muhammed Basheer). Kottayam, D.C. Books. 135 pp.

2000a. Seikai minzoku gengo chizu. Atlas of the World’s Languages. Japanese translation of 1994a. Tokyo, Toyo-shorin, 2000. vii + 506 pp.

2000b. (Joint Editor-in-Chief with Roy Harris) Linguisticoliterary: A Festschrift for Professor D.S. Dwivedi. Delhi, Pilgrims Book Pvt. Ltd. xvi + 530 pp.

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 E. Annamalai) Colloquial Tamil, London & New York: Routledge. viii + 314 pp. 2nd (revised) impression 2004.

2002b. (with N. Gopalakrishnan) What the Sufi said (Translation from Malayalam of K. P. Ramanunni’s novel Sufi paranja katha). New Delhi, Rupa & Co; xii + 174 pp.

2002c. ‘R. E. Asher’. In Keith Brown and Vivien Law (eds), Linguistics in Britain: Personal Histories (Publications of the Philological Society, 36). Oxford UK/Boston USA, Blackwell, pp. 28–42.

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). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Vol. 2, pp. 437–438.

2004d. Ullmann, Stephen (1914–76). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Vol. 55, pp. 868–869.

2004e. ‘Foreword’. In William Hardcastle & Janet Beck (eds), A Figure of Speech: a Festschrift for John Laver. Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. ix–xvi.

2004f. (With Elinor Keane) ‘Diphthongs in Tamil’. In William Hardcastle & Janet Beck (eds), A Figure of Speech: a Festschrift for John Laver. Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 147–172.

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.