Morris Halle

Morris Halle
Halle in 2011
Born	Morris Pinkowitz (1923-07-23)July 23, 1923 Liepāja,Latvia
Died	April 2, 2018(2018-04-02)(aged 94) Cambridge, Massachusetts,U.S.
Academic background
Alma mater	Harvard University,Columbia University,University of Chicago,City College of New York
Doctoral advisor	Roman Jakobson
Academic work
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Notable students	Mark Aronoff John Goldsmith Bruce Hayes Mark Liberman Elisabeth Selkirk Moira Yip Arnold Zwicky

Morris Halle,néPinkowitz(/ˈhæli/;July 23, 1923 – April 2, 2018), was aLatvian-bornAmericanlinguistwho was anInstitute Professor,and later professor emeritus, of linguistics at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology.The father of "modernphonology",he was best known for his pioneering work in generative phonology, having written "On Accent and Juncture in English" in 1956 withNoam ChomskyandFred LukoffandThe Sound Pattern of Englishin 1968 with Chomsky. He also co-authored (withSamuel Jay Keyser) the earliest theory ofgenerative metrics.

Life and career

Halle was born - asMorris Pinkowitz(Latvian:Moriss Pinkovics) - on July 23, 1923, inLiepāja,Latvia.In 1929 he moved with hisJewishfamily toRiga.He arrived in the United States in 1940 and graduated fromGeorge Washington High School.From 1941 to 1943, he studied engineering at theCity College of New York.He entered theUnited States Armyin 1943 and was discharged in 1946, at which point he went to theUniversity of Chicago,where he got hismaster's degreein linguistics in 1948. He then studied atColumbia UniversityunderRoman Jakobson,became a professor at theMassachusetts Institute of Technologyin 1951, and earned hisPhDfromHarvard Universityin 1955. He is considered to be, with Noam Chomsky, the founder of the modern linguistics department at MIT.He retired from MIT in 1996, but he remained active in research and publication. He was fluent inGerman,Yiddish,Latvian,Russian,HebrewandEnglish.

Halle was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1960.He wasPresident of the Linguistic Society of Americain 1974.He was also a fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences,and a member of theNational Academy of Sciences.

Halle was married for fifty-six years to painter, artist and activist Rosamond Thaxter Halle (née Strong), until her death in April 2011. They had three sons: David, John and Timothy.

Halle resided inCambridge, Massachusetts.He died on April 2, 2018, at the age of 94.

External links

• Halle page at MIT
• MIT News Office article about Halle
• Conversation with John A. Goldsmith and Haj Ross
• Reminiscenses by Halle at the 50th anniversary of MIT Linguistics, introduced by Noam ChomskyonYouTube