Ray Jackendoff
Department of Philosophy
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155 USA
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Massachusetts Insti9tute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139
E-mail: ray (dot)jackendoff(at)tufts(dot)edu
Born: Chicago, IL, 23 January 1945
1961-65 Swarthmore College (mathematics honors) B.A. 1965
1965-69 M.I.T. (linguistics)
1969-70 UCLA Lecturer
1971-73 Brandeis University Assistant Professor
1973-78 Brandeis University Associate Professor
1978-2006 Brandeis University Professor
(Chair of Linguistics Program, 1972-1981)
(Chair of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, 1981-1992, 2002-2006)
2006- Brandeis University Professor Emeritus
2005-2017 Tufts University Seth Merrin Professor of Humanities
Co-director, Center for Cognitive Studies)
2018- Tufts University Seth Merrin Professor Emeritus
1969 (summer) University of Illinois (LSA Linguistic Institute)
1974 (summer) University of Massachusetts, Amherst (LSA Linguistic Institute)
1980 (summer) University of New Mexico (LSA Linguistic Institute)
1987 University of Arizona (Visiting Professor)
1989 (summer) University of Arizona (LSA Linguistic Institute)
1996 (summer) Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, University of Pennsylvania
1999 (summer) University of Illinois (LSA Linguistic Institute)
2003 (summer) Michigan State University (Sapir Professor, LSA Linguistic Institute)
2023 (summer) University of Massachusetts, Amherst (LSA Linguistic Institute)
1966 (summer) Technical Operations, Inc., Burlington, MA
1967 (summer) Brandeis University (under S. J. Keyser)
1969-1970 RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA (under Martin Kay)
1983-1984 Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA
1999-2000 Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Berlin
2009 Sabbatical Visitor, Santa Fe Institute
2006-2012 External Faculty, Santa Fe Institute
2014-2016 Visiting scholar (one month each year), Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
2016- Research Affiliate, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
Semantic/conceptual theory of natural language
Syntactic/lexical theory
Morphology
Cognition
Architecture and evolution of mind
Music cognition
Consciousness
Social cognition
NEH Fellowship for Independent Study and Research, 1978
Guggenheim Fellowship, 1993-94
Co-Principal Investigator (with Jane Grimshaw), "Information Structure of a Natural Language Lexicon," NSF Information Sciences Division, 1982-1984 ($154,000)
Co-Principal Investigator (with Jane Grimshaw), "Syntactic and Semantic Information in a Natural Language Lexicon," NSF Information Sciences Division, 1985-1987 ($260,000)
Co-Principal Investigator (with Jane Grimshaw), "Conceptual Structure and Argument Structure in a Natural Language Lexicon," NSF Programs in Linguistics and in Knowledge Models and Cognitive Systems, 1988-1992 ($304,000)
Co-Principal Investigator (with James Pustejovsky), "Lexical and Nonlexical Contributions to Sentence Meaning," NSF Program in Knowledge Models and Cognitive Systems, 1993-1997 ($302,000)
Co-Principal Investigator (Edgar Zurif, PI; James Pustejovsky, Co-PI), "Sentence semantics: Normal processes and lesion effects," NIH DC 03660, 2000-2004 ($1,331,974)
Tufts Collaborates Grant (PI; Ariel Goldberg, co-PI) “Structure of an Emerging Village Sign Language in Turkey,” 2015-2016 ($15,000)
ther professional activities
Interview with Pello Salaburu in Jakin (Spain), 1981
Interview with Liesbeth Koenen in NRC Handelsblad (Netherlands), 1990
Interview with Hannu Reime, broadcast on Finnish radio, 1991
Interview with John Goldsmith, in Geoffrey J. Huck and John Goldsmith, Ideology and Linguistic Theory, University of Chicago Press, 1995
Interview with Ad Bergsma in Psychologie (Netherlands), December 1998
Interview with Birgit Dahlheimer on Austrian radio, June 2001
Interviews with David Inge on WILL-AM (NPR, Urbana); with Reggie Bryant on WHAT-AM (Philadelphia); with David Schechtman on KVON-FM (San Francisco), 2002
Interview with Kathleen Dunn on Wisconsin Public Radio, 2003
Interview on lexical semantics, ReVEL 11/20. 147-154, 2013
Interview with Julien Musolino, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9U5zee32jg&feature=youtu.be
Clarinet soloist with Boston Pops Orchestra, 1980 (nationwide radio broadcast)
Executive Committee, Society for Philosophy and Psychology (1985-92); President-Elect (1989-90), President (1990-91)
Executive Committee, Linguistic Society of America (1996-99, 2002-2005); Vice-President/
President-Elect, 2002; President, 2003
Nominating Committee, Section Z, American Association for the Advancement of Science
(2001-2004)
Editorial boards of Quaderni di Semantica (1980-86), Music Perception (1983-2005), Language 1985-87), Cognitive Science (1985-2005), Consciousness and Cognition (1991-97), Studia Linguistica (1992- ), Natural Language and Linguistic Theory (1996-2007), Spatial Cognition and Computation (1998-2007), Trends in Cognitive Sciences (1998- ), English Linguistics (2001- ), European Review of Philosophy (2004- )
Outside reviewer for NSF, NEH, Canada Research Council, Linguistic Inquiry, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Bunting Institute, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, MIT Press, Univ. of Chicago Press, Routledge, Science, Journal of East Asian Linguistics, Cognition, Pragmatics and Cognition, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, Perspectives on Science, Linguistics and Philosophy, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Language and Cognitive Processes, Journal of Germanic Linguistics, Mind and Language, Studies in Language, Journal of Music Theory
Visiting Committee, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT, 1979-1989
Visiting Committee, Department of Linguistics, Harvard, 1986-1991
Evaluation Committee, Cognitive Science Program, SUNY Buffalo, 1994
Academic Program Review Committee, Cognitive Science Program, University of
Arizona, 1996
Scientific Advisory Board, Language in Interaction consortium (Netherlands), 2015-2020
Consultant to McDonnell Foundation Panel on Cognitive Neuroscience, 1988
Consultant to Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation, 1998
Consultant, Macmillan Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, 1999
Consultant, Equinox Films, 2001Having a big sale, on-site celebrity, or other event? Be sure to announce it so everybody knows and gets excited about it.
LSA Linguistic Institute, Universary of Massachusetts, Amherst, summer 2023 (8 lectures)
Abralin online course: Simpler Syntax: Foundations and Applications, 2021 (4 lectures in a series of 12; others by Peter Culicover and Giuseppe Varaschin)(remote)
Summer School, Norwegian National Graduate School in Linguistics, Svalbard, 2019 (5 lectures)
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2017 (5 lectures)
The Patten Lectures, Indiana University, 2011 (2 public lectures, 2 colloquia, 4 classes, 2 discussions)
Sage Center for the Study of Mind, UC Santa Barbara, 2010 (4 lectures)
Walker-Ames Lectures, University of Washington, 2003 (6 lectures and 2 discussions)
Jean Nicod Lectures, Institut Jean Nicod, Paris, 2003 (4 lectures)
Harvard University Linguistics Department, 2002 (4 lectures)
George A. Miller Visiting Professor, University of Illinois, 2002 (7 lectures)
University of Leipzig/Max Planck Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2000 (4 lectures)
Fall School in Syntax and Semantics, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, 1999 (3 lectures)
Numazu (Japan) Linguistic Seminar, 1996 (8 lectures)
Summer School on Language and Understanding, University of San Marino, 1995 (5 lectures)
Ottawa-Carleton Joint Cognitive Science Distinguished Lecture Series, 1994 (3 lectures)
International Colloquium on Cognitive Science, University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian,
1993 (3 lectures)
The Nijmegen Lectures, University of Nijmegen/Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 1989 (2
lectures and 4 workshops)
Visiting Professor, University of Ottawa, winter 1982 (10 lectures)
Distinguished Visiting Lecturer, Sophia University, Tokyo, fall 1980 (7 lectures)
Canadian Linguistic Institute, Montreal, summer 1977 (3 lectures)
Invited talk, Workshop on inner speech, University of Salzburg, 2025 (remote)
Invited talk, SCHEMAS conference, University of Niš, Serbia, 2024 (remote)
FoundationsFest, Workshop in honor of RJ, Central European University, Vienna, 2024
Plenary, International Conference on Construction Grmmar, Prague, 2023
CARTA Symposium on AI and Anthropogeny , UCSD, 2023 (remote)
Opening keynote, Expression in Language and Music, UConn, 2022
Workshop, Cognitive and Cultural Influences on Language Emergence, Istanbul, 2022 (remote)
Inaugural lecture, PhiLing Seminar Lectures, University of Łódź, Poland, 2022 (remote)
McDonnell Workshop on Recursion, Harvard, 2021 (remote)
McDonnell Workshop on Prediction in Language Processing, Harvard, 2021 (remote)
The CogTalk, Centre for Cognitive and Neurosciences, University of Hyderabad, 2020 (remote)
Invited talk, I Encuentro de la Red de Lingüistas en Formación de Argentina, 2020 (remote)
Invited talk, Abralin lecture series, 2020 (remote)
Invited talk, Rappaport-Kline Study Group, 2020 (remote)
Invited talk, Architecture of Cognitive Systems, MIT, 2019
Invited talk, Workshop on semantic knowledge and semantic processing, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Dartmouth, 2019
Keynote, Slavic Cognitive Linguistics Association, Harvard, 2019
Inauguration of Linguistics Lab, Erlangen, Germany, 2019
Keynote, Grote Taaldag, Utrecht, 2018
Invited talk, Symposium in honor of Fred Lerdahl’s retirement, Columbia, 2018
Invited talk, Workshop at CUNY Sentence Processing Conference, MIT, 2017
Invited talk, Symposium: Taking the langue view, Yale, 2017
Workshop on emerging sign languages, Radcliffe Institute, 2017
Invited talk, Meaning in Flux, Yale, 2017
Invited talk, Resolving Conflicts Across Borders, Dubrovnik, 2017
Plenary, Olomouc Linguistics Colloquium, Olomouc, Czech Republic, 2016 (remote)
CARTA Symposium, UCSD, 2015
Keynote, SMART Cognitive Science conference, Amsterdam, 2015
Workshop: Emerging Sign Languages and the Big Picture (co-organizer), Tufts, 2015
Workshop: The Music/Language Connection, NYU, 2015
Keynote, Mediterranean Morphology Meeting, University of Haifa, 2015
American International Morphology Meeting, UMass Amherst, 2015
Keynote, Colloque du Syntax et Semantique à Paris, 2015
Keynote, Council of Scientific Society Presidents, Washington, 2015
Rumelhart Prize lecture, Cognitive Science Society, Quebec City, 2014
Keynote, HPSG conference, Buffalo, 2014
SMART Lecture, University of Amsterdam, 2013
Norman Johnson lecture, Wheaton College, 2013
Workshop: Sociolinguistics in Dialogue with Parallel Architecture, Freiburg, Germany,
2013
Workshop on philosophy of semantics, Arché Research Centre, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, 2013
Workshop on Complex Sentences, Types of Embedding, and Recursivity, University of Konstanz, 2012
Workshop on Formal Linguistics and the Measurement of Grammatical Complexity, University of Washington, 2012
Keynote, Linguistics Colloquium 2012, University of North Carolina, 2012
Plenary, Sociolinguistics Symposium 19, Freie Universität, Berlin, 2012
Keynote, Symposium in honor of Geert Booij, University of Leiden, 2012
Co-organizer and speaker, Conference on Language and Representation, Tufts, 2012
Keynote, Boston University Conference on Language Development, 2012
Cognitive Theory and the Arts Series, Harvard Humanities Center, 2012
Symposium on music and language, Music Academy of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2011
MIT Ling50 (50th anniversary of MIT Linguistics Program), 2011
Donders Lecture, University of Nijmegen and Max Planck Institute, 2010
Workshop on language and valence, Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen, 2010
Conference on Law and Neuroscience, UC Santa Barbara, 2010
Opening keynote, 15th International Conference on Lexical-Functional Grammar, Carleton University, Ottawa, 2010
Opening keynote, Summer School on Origins of Language, Université du Québec à Montréal, 2010
Society of Aphasia XI, University of Potsdam, 2010
Cognitive Science of Morality and its Policy Implications, Tufts University (co-organizer), 2010
Workshop: Co-evolution of behavior and institutions, Santa Fe Institute, 2009
Workshop: Mechanisms of linguistic change, Santa Fe Institute, 2009
7
Foundations and Frontiers of SFI Science, Santa Fe Institute, 2009
Workshop on Computational Approaches to Narrative, MIT, 2009
Symposium: Autour de la Théorie Générative de la Musique Tonale de Fred Lerdahl et Ray Jackendoff, Institut Recherche et Coordination Acoustique-Musique, Paris, 2008
Colloque: Musique Langage Cerveau, 25 ans après la Théorie Générative de la Musique Tonale de Lerdahl et Jackendoff, Dijon, 2008
Plenary, Twenty-Sixth European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Bressanone, Italy, 2008
Santa Fe Institute Public Lecture Series, 2008
Santa Fe Institute Workshop on Integrative Models of Language Change, 2008
Workshop on Social Cognition, MIT/ONR, 2008
Workshop on semiproductivity (co-organizer and speaker), Tufts, 2008
Conference on visual cognition and memory, Tufts, 2008
Conference on Music, Language, and the Mind, celebrating 25th anniversary of Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s Generative Theory of Tonal Music, Tufts, 2008 (2 talks and concert)
Symposium: Is Morality Universal, and Should the Law Care? Brooklyn Law School, 2008
Linguistic Society of America plenary, annual meeting, 2007
Conference “Building Meaning from Language”, Tufts, 2007 (speaker and organizing committee)
Authors@Google, 2007
Plenary, International Conference on Complex Systems, Boston, 2007
Boston Society for Cognitive Science, Inaugural lecture, 2007
Commentator on Symposium, “Linguistic Structure and Connectionist Models: How Good is the Fit?”, Linguistic Society of America annual meeting, Albuquerque, 2006
Symposium on Language and the Brain, Society for Cognitive Neuroscience, San Francisco, 2006
Conference “Lnaguage and the Mnid” [sic], University of Amsterdam, 2006
Second Biennial Conference on Cognitive Science, St. Petersburg, 2006
Workshop on Linguistics in Education (co-organizer), Tufts University, 2006
Linguistics in the 21st Century: Perspectives and Challenges, University of Georgia, 2006
Plenary lecture, Chicago Linguistics Society, University of Chicago, 2005
Plenary lecture, International Association for the Study of Child Language, Berlin, 2005
Alice V. and Dave H. Morris International Symposium on The Evolution of Language, SUNY Stony Brook, 2005
Presidential Address, Linguistic Society of America, Boston, 2004
Benjamin and Anne A. Pinkel Endowed Lecture, University of Pennsylvania, 2004
Keynote lecture, Workshop on Computational Lexical Semantics, HLT/NAACL, Boston, 2004
Keynote lecture, Symposium on The Architecture of the Language Faculty, Centre for Human Communication, University College London, 2004
Plenary lecture, Western Conference on Linguistics, USC, 2004
IGERT Workshop on Cognitive Science of Language, Johns Hopkins University, 2003
Keynote lecture, Harvard University Undergraduate Linguistics Conference, 2003
Symbolic Systems Distinguished Lecture, Stanford University, 2003
Edward Sapir Lecture, LSA Linguistics Institute, Michigan State University, 2003
Keynote lecture, Michigan Linguistics Society, 2003
Plenary lecture, Fourth International Conference on the Evolution of Language, Harvard, 2002
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Einstein Forum, 2002
Plenary lecture, Conference on Linguistic Universals, Madrid, 2002
8
Plenary lecture, International Conference on Linguistic Theory, Athens, 2002
Plenary lecture, Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness–6, Barcelona, 2002
Plenary lecture, Linguistic Society of America, Washington, 2001
AAAS Symposium on Cognitive Precursors of Language, San Francisco, 2001
Keynote lecture, First International Conference on Social Cognitive Neuroscience, Los Angeles, 2001
Workshop on Evolution and Learning of Language, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 2001
Origins of Cooperation and Communication, Steyr, Austria, 2000
Sigma Xi Lecture, Swarthmore College, 2000
Workshop on Constructions, Urbana, 1999
Plenary lecture, German Cognitive Science Society, Bielefeld, 1999
Conference on Origins of Language, Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1999
Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Minneapolis, 1998
Keynote lecture, "Storage and Computation in Linguistics," Utrecht, 1998
Plenary lecture, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft, Düsseldorf, 1997
First John Macnamara Memorial Lecture, McGill University, 1997
Plenary lecture, XVI International Congress of Linguists, Paris, 1997
"Apples and Origins II," New Hampshire Humanities Council Lecture Series on the
Mind, 1995 and 1996
Euroconference "Disorders of Semantic Memory," SISSA, Trieste, 1996
Workshop "Future Developments in Linguistic Theory," Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen, 1996 (Co-organizer)
Plenary lecture, "The Growing Mind" (Piaget Centennial), Geneva, 1996
LARS '95: Second Language Acquisition and Cognitive Science, Utrecht, 1995
Colloque de Syntax et Semantique de Paris, 1995
Workshop on Constraint-Based Theories of Grammar, University of Chicago, 1995
(Co-organizer)
Conference on Phrase Structure and Argument Structure, Indiana University, 1994
Workshop on Language and Spatial Cognition, University of Arizona, 1994
Keynote speaker, Linguistic Association of Great Britain, University of Salford, 1994
Distinguished Lecturer Series: Interdisciplinary Seminar on the Foundations of Consciousness, Ohio State University, 1994
NSF-MIT Workshop on the Lexicon, 1994
Stiftungsgastprofessor Lecture Series, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, 1994
Final Plenary Lecture, First International Institute for Cognitive Science, SUNY Buffalo, 1994
Keynote Speaker, Academy of Aphasia, Boston, 1994
University of Arizona Social and Behavioral Sciences Distinguished Lecturer Series, 1993
Conference "Multiple Worlds" on language and spatial cognition, Cognitive Anthropology Group, Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen, 1993
D. O. Hebb Lecture, McGill University, 1992
2nd Tilburg Conference on Idioms, 1992
Keynote speaker, Eastern States Conference on Linguistics, Buffalo, 1992
Congress 'Infolutie,' sponsored by BSO/beheer, Amsterdam, 1991
Jean Piaget Society, Philadelphia, 1991
Presidential Address, Society for Philosophy and Psychology, San Francisco, 1991
Keynote speaker, Eastern States Conference on Linguistics, Baltimore, 1991
Conference on Music Perception, Ohio State University, 1990
Conference on Consciousness and the Human Brain, Bellagio, 1990
Boston University Child Language Conference, 1990
Keynote Speaker, Annual Conference of Generative Linguists of the Old World, Utrecht, 1989
Groningen Round Table, 1989
Conference on Lexical Semantics, University of Arizona, 1989
UCLA Conference on Syntactic Theory, 1988
Keynote speaker, Fourth Annual Israeli Conference on Theoretical Linguistics, 1988
Cooper Foundation Lecture and Concert, Swarthmore College, 1988
Conference on Julian Jaynes (Harvard), 1988
Conference on the Computer and the Brain, Arizona State University, 1987
Conference on Mental Representation, University of British Columbia/Simon Fraser University, 1986
Keynote speaker, University of Syracuse Conference on Language and Communication, 1985
Stanford Metrics Conference, 1984
MacArthur Foundation Workshop on Consciousness, 1984
Forum Lecture, LSA Linguistic Institute (UCLA), 1983
Princeton Conference on Linguistic Theory and Psychological Reality, 1982
Sloan/McGill University Conference on Semantics and Psychology, 1982
Sloan/UC Irvine Conference on Spatial Cognition, 1981
Sloan/UC Irvine Conference on Similarities and Differences among Cognitive Capacities,
1980
IBM (Yorktown Heights) Distinguished Lectures on Language, 1979
Accademia Filarmonica (Rome) Conference on Language and Music, 1977
UC Irvine Workshop on Formal Syntax, 1976
IRCAM (Paris) Seminar on Music and Linguistics, 1975
MIT Faculty Workshop on Language and Cognition, 1975-76
Texas Conference on Theory of Grammar, 1972
2nd, 3rd, and 4th La Jolla Conferences on Linguistic Theory, 1968, 1969, 1970
Bar-Ilan University, Barnard College, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Boğaziçi University (Istanbul – remote), Boston College, Boston University Medical School, Boston University, Boston VA Hospital, Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, CUNY Graduate Center, Dartmouth College, Eastman School of Music, Georgetown, Goethe-Universität (Frankfurt), Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Hebrew University, Humboldt University (Berlin), IBM Watson Research Center, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins, Kyoto University, Lund University (Sweden) (remote), Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Nijmegen), McGill, Michigan State, Minsk State Linguistic University (Belarus), MIT, Moulay Ismail University (Morocco), New York Academy of Sciences, Northwestern, NYU, Ohio State University, Ohio University, Penn State, Princeton, Rutgers, Salk Institute, Santa Fe Institute, School of Oriental and African Studies (London), Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa), Southeastern Connecticut State University, Stanford University, SUNY at Buffalo, SUNY Stony Brook, Swarthmore, Tel Aviv University, Tokyo University, Tufts, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, UCSD, UMass Amherst, Université du Québec à Montréal, University College London, University of Arizona, University of British Columbia, University of Bucharest, University of Colorado, University of Connecticut, University of Copenhagen,
University of Delaware, University of Essex (Colchester, UK), University of Gothenburg, University of Haifa, University of Illinois, University of Iowa, University of Köln, University of Lund, University of Manitoba (remote), University of Maryland, University of Memphis (TN)(remote), University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, University of Rochester, University of South Carolina, University of Texas, University of Torino, University of Toronto, University of Utrecht, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, University of Zagreb, USC, Vassar College, Washington and Lee University, Yale, York University
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