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Richard Hogg: Historian of the English language, dies suddenly

Richard Milne Hogg, historian of the English language: born Edinburgh 20 May 1944; Lecturer in English Language, University of Amsterdam 1969-73; Lecturer in English Language, Lancaster University 1973-80; Smith Professor of English Language and Medieval Literature, Manchester University 1980-2007; General Editor, Cambridge History of the English Language 1992-2001; FBA 1994; married 1969 Margaret White (two sons); died Manchester 6 September 2007.

Richard Hogg, a world-renowned specialist in the linguistic history of English, died suddenly midway through the sabbatical year which should have allowed him to bring important projects on dialectology and on Old English to completion. His best-known achievement is the six-volume Cambridge History of the English Language (CHEL, 1992-2001), of which he was General Editor.

Hogg's roots were in Edinburgh, where he was born, in 1944, grew up and studied. After nearly 40 years away, he was still wholly a Scot in speech and sympathies. His postgraduate career in Edinburgh had begun with two contrasting academic preoccupations: the Chomskyan analysis of present-day English syntax on the one hand (his PhD topic), and Middle English dialects on the other (his research post). In their very different ways, both represented state-of-the-art linguistics of the time....
Read entire article at Independent (UK)