Joan Bybee

Joan Bybee is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Linguistics at the University of New Mexico. Her research focuses on theoretical issues in phonology, morphology, language universals and linguistic change. Her work utilizing large cross-linguistic databases, e.g. Morphology: A study of the relation between Meaning and Form (Benjamins, 1985), The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect and Modality in the Languages of the World (with Perkins and Pagliuca, University of Chicago Press, 1994), provide diachronic explanations for typological phenomena. Her books presenting a usage-based perspective on synchrony and diachrony include Phonology and Language Use (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and Frequency of Use and the Organization of language (Oxford University Press, 2007), Language, Usage and Cognition (Cambridge University Press, 2010). In 2015 Language Change appeared in the Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics Series. Professor Bybee served as the President of the Linguistic Society of America in 2004 and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oslo in 2005. She is a Fellow of the LSA and the Cognitive Science Society.