Charles A. Ferguson
Encyclopedia
Charles Albert Ferguson (6 July 1921 – 2 September 1998) was a U.S. linguist who taught at Stanford University
. He was one the founders of sociolinguistics
and is best known for his work on diglossia
. The TOEFL
test was created under his leadership at the Center for Applied Linguistics
in Washington, DC. Ferguson was also the leader of a team of linguists in Ethiopia
under the Ford Foundation
's Survey of Language Use and Language Teaching. One of the many publications that came out of this was his article proposing the Ethiopian Language Area
(Ferguson 1976), an article that has become widely cited and an important milestone in the study of contact linguistics.
Ferguson is also widely noted for his seminal article on diglossia, published in 1959 and (reprinted since then in other publications). The original article has been cited in print over 900 times according to the statistics on Google Scholar
.
He was honored with a two-volume collection of papers in a 1986 festschrift
, edited by Joshua A. Fishman
and others.
(BA 1942, MA 1943 with a thesis on the Moroccan Arabic Verb; PhD 1945 with a dissertation on Standard Colloquial Bengali).
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. He was one the founders of sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
and is best known for his work on diglossia
Diglossia
In linguistics, diglossia refers to a situation in which two dialects or languages are used by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety , a second, highly codified variety is used in certain situations such as literature, formal...
. The TOEFL
TOEFL
The Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL , evaluates the ability of an individual to use and understand English in an academic setting....
test was created under his leadership at the Center for Applied Linguistics
Center for Applied Linguistics
The Center for Applied Linguistics is a private, nonprofit organization that describes its mission as “working to improve communication through better understanding of language and culture”...
in Washington, DC. Ferguson was also the leader of a team of linguists in Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
under the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
's Survey of Language Use and Language Teaching. One of the many publications that came out of this was his article proposing the Ethiopian Language Area
Ethiopian Language Area
Charles Ferguson first proposed the Ethiopian Language Area . He posited a number of phonological and morpho-syntactic features that were found widely across Ethiopia , including the Ethio-Semitic, Cushitic, and Omotic languages, Charles Ferguson first proposed the Ethiopian Language Area (1970,...
(Ferguson 1976), an article that has become widely cited and an important milestone in the study of contact linguistics.
Ferguson is also widely noted for his seminal article on diglossia, published in 1959 and (reprinted since then in other publications). The original article has been cited in print over 900 times according to the statistics on Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes most peer-reviewed online journals of Europe and America's largest...
.
He was honored with a two-volume collection of papers in a 1986 festschrift
Festschrift
In academia, a Festschrift , is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during his or her lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication or celebratory writing...
, edited by Joshua A. Fishman
Joshua Fishman
Joshua Aaron Fishman, is an American linguist who specializes in the sociology of language, language planning, bilingual education, and language and ethnicity.-Life:...
and others.
Life and education
Charles Albert Ferguson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1921. He had an early curiosity for language, system, and order which led him to explore foreign languages through Oriental Studies at the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
(BA 1942, MA 1943 with a thesis on the Moroccan Arabic Verb; PhD 1945 with a dissertation on Standard Colloquial Bengali).
Further reading
- Ferguson, Charles A. 1959. Diglossia. Word 15: 325-340.
- Ferguson, Charles. 1976. The Ethiopian Language Area. Language In Ethiopia, ed. by M. Lionel BenderLionel Bender (linguist)Marvin Lionel Bender was an American author and co-author of several books, publications and essays regarding African languages, particularly from Ethiopia and Sudan. He retired from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He did extensive work in all four language families of Ethiopia: Semitic,...
, J. Donald Bowen, R.L. Cooper, Charles A. Ferguson, pp. 63–76. Oxford: Oxford University Press. - Fishman, Joshua. 2000. "Obituary: Charles A. Ferguson, 1921-1998: An Appreciation," Journal of Sociolinguistics 4/1: 121-128.
- Fishman, Joshua, et al., eds. 1986. The Fergusonian impact: in honor of Charles A. Ferguson on the occasion of his 65th birthday. (Contributions to the sociology of language, 42.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Huebner, Thom. 1999. "Obituary Charles Albert Ferguson". Language in Society 28: 431-437.