James Higginbotham

James Higginbotham FBA (17 August 1941 – 25 April 2014) was a distinguished professor of Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of Southern California. Beforehand, he was Professor of Linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and at the University of Oxford, where he was head of the Linguistics Department.

Distinctions

• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, from 2011.
• Visiting Fellow, Wolfson College Oxford, Trinity Term 2010.
• Vera Brittain Visiting Fellow, Somerville College, Oxford, 1 January-30 June 2009.
• Distinguished Professor, University of Southern California, from January 2008.
• Linda Hilf Chair in Philosophy, USC, from March 2004.
• Fulbright Distinguished Professor of the Philosophy of Language, University of Venice Ca'Foscari, Italy, Spring 2003.
• Visiting Fellow, Wolfson College, Oxford, Trinity Term 2001.
• Fellow of the British Academy, from 1995.
• Visiting Fellow, All Souls College Oxford, Hilary Term, 1990.
• Visiting Fellow, Wolfson College Oxford, Trinity Term, 1988.
• Visiting Scholar, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy, Spring Term 1987.
• Professor Higginbotham published many articles in MIT working papers in linguistics, Linguistic Inquiry, Mind & Language, Linguistics & Philosophy, etc.
• He authored volumes published by Oxford University Press, Routledge, and he edited a volume on the semantics of events published by OUP.

Higginbotham edited the Journal of Philosophy (along with others) when he was on the faculty at Columbia University, one of the most authoritative philosophy journals in USA. He was also the editor of the OUP series in cognitive science and the associate editor of Pragmatics and Cognition.

Teaching activities

James Higginbotham, like Sir Peter Strawson, had a reputation in Oxford as a very strict teacher. Noam Chomsky, speaking about James Higginbotham, used to say that he was a very constructive teacher.

External links

• http://www.springerlink.com/content/r8053j87672tt26l/
• bio retrieved 3rd Jan 2011
• in memoriam
• Deceased Fellows