Linguistics

The Forbes Chair of English Language and General Linguistics was instituted in 1947. A discrete Lectureship in General Linguistics was created in 1958, and in 1964 a Chair of General Linguistics was established. The Chair of English Language and General Linguistics was renamed the Chair of English Language, and a separate Department of General Linguistics was set up in 1966.

Meanwhile, a Department of Phonetics has been established under David Abercombie (1909-1992) (Lecturer in Phonetics from 1948, Reader from 1957, and Personal Chair in Phonetics from 1964). In 1968, the Departments of Phonetics and General Linguistics merged to become the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics.

A Lectureship and Department of Applied Linguistics was established under Stephen Pit Corder (1918-1990) in 1964. In 1969, this merged with the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics to become the Department of Linguistics. A Chair of Advanced Linguistics was established in 1992, and from 1996 to 1999 Applied Linguistics again became a separate department. It reunited with Linguistics in 1999 to become the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics.

Following major restructuring of Edinburgh University in 2002, the teaching of Linguistics was transferred from the Faculty of Arts to the School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences of the College of Humanities and Social Science.

Professors of General Linguistics

• 1964-1976: Sir John Lyons (1932- )
• 1979-2007: James R. Hurford (1941- )
• 2007- : Geoffrey Keith Pullum (1945- )

Professors of Applied Linguistics

• 1970-1983: Stephen Pit Corder (1918-1990)
• 1992-1995: Alan Davies
• 1996- : John E. Joseph

(S. Pit Corder had previously held a Personal Chair in Advanced Linguistics from 1970 to 1983.)

Professors of Linguistics

• 1978-1993: Ron Asher (nobody in place by 1995)
• 1997-2011: D. Robert Ladd

Nikolas Gisborne (no, that's a sodding personal chair again)