Prof. Victoria Fromkin 1923-2000

Victoria Fromkin was a major figure in the history of the UCLA Linguistic Department:  one of its first Ph.D.'s, a faculty member from 1965 to her death in 2000, and for many years the Dean/Vice Chancellor of the UCLA Graduate Division.

The department maintains Prof. Fromkin's Web page as a source of biographical and historical information.  There is also one downloadable research paper.

Various obituaries of Prof. Fromkin can be read by clicking here.

Research Interests

Brain and language; lexical representation and access; processing models; speech errors as linguistic evidence; linguistic explanations of aphasic language.

Selected Publications

The lexicon: evidence from acquired dyslexia. (1987) Language 63.1-22

Grammatical aspects of speech errors. (1988) in Linguistics: Cambridge Survey. Vol. 2. F. Newmeyer, Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 117-138

The mental lexicon. (1988) [K. Emmorey and V. A. Fromkin] in Linguistics: Cambridge Survey. Vol. 4. 124-150 F. Newmeyer, Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The state of brain/language research. (1988) in Communication and the Brain. Fred Plum, Ed. NY: Raven Press. 1-18

A characterization of the prosodic loss in Parkinson's disease. (1988) [A. W. Darkins, V. A. Fromkin, and D. Frank Benson] Brain and Language 34. 315-327

Sign languages -- evidence for language universals and the linguistic capacity of the human brain. (1988) Sign Language Studies 59. 115-127

How relevant is 'external evidence' for a theory of grammar? (1988) in Rhetorica, Phonologica, Syntactica: A Festchrift in honor of Robert P. Stockwell. C. Duncan-Rose & T.Vennemann, Eds. London and NY: Routledge. 52-65

The past, present and future of neurolinguistics. (1990) WECOL Proceedings: October 14 - 17, 1989, Arizona State University Dept. of Linguistics, CSU, Fresno. V. Samian, Ed..

A formal model of linguistic processing: evidence from aphasia. (1990)[Cornell, T.L., V.A. Fromkin, & G. Mauner] Technical Report UCLA -CSRP-90-10; WCCFL Proceedings, Vol 9. 171-188. Stanford, CA.

Brain and Language: Redefining the goals and methodology of linguistics (1991) in On the Chomskyan Turn: Early Generative Linguistics, Philosophy and Mathematics Asa Kasher, Ed. Basil Blackwell. pp 78-103

Past, present and future studies of brain, mind, and language. (1991) Proceedings of LP'90. B. Palek and P. Janota, Eds. Prague: Charles Univ. Press. 9-32

Hyperlinguistic Individuals: A Reply. (1993) Cognitive Linguistics 4:3. 398-402

Speech Production. (1993) in Psycholinguistics. Jean Berko Gleason & Nan Bernstein Ratner, Eds. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.

A linguistic approach to language processing in Broca's aphasia: A paradox resolved. [Cornell, T., Fromkin, V.A., and Mauner, G.] Current Directions in Psychological Science 2.2: 47-52

Comprehension and acceptability judgments in agrammatism: disruptions in the syntax of referential dependency and the two-chain hypothesis. (1993) [Mauner, G, Fromkin, V.A., & Cornell, T.L.] Brain and Language 45: 340-70

Lexical Decision in the Two Hemispheres or: Why God is Not a Programmer.[A] [Eran Zaidel & Victoria Fromkin] Brain and Language 47.3. 386-388. 1994

Roman Jakobson: A Linguist's View of Aphasia. Fromkin, V.A. 1994. Brain and Language 47.3. 535-537.

On the modularity of language and other cognitive systems. 1995. in Licensing in Syntax & Phonology. Studies and Monograms. Vol. 1. Edmund Gussman, Ed. Lublin, Poland.

Editor 1995. Brain & Language Special Issue:Linguistic Representational & Processing Analyses of Agrammatism. Vol 50. 1,2,3 Introduction Neurobiology of Language and Speech. 1995. in Elenius, Kjell & Peter Branderud, Eds. Proceedings of the XIIIth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Stockholm, 13-19 Aug, 1995. Vol. 2. 156-163

Introduction to Language. [Fromkin, V.A. and Rodman, R.] 1997. Harcourt Brace. 6th edition. Translated into Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hindi, Dutch.

Some thoughts about the brain/mind/language interface. 1997. Lingua 100. 3-27
(This paper is available for download in zipped Word 7 format or zipped Postscript format.)

Biographic Information

I was born in Passaic, New Jersey, and went to Belmont High School, in L.A. I received a BA in Economics from UCB. I married and had a child--17 years later I entered the graduate program in linguistics at UCLA, PhD 1965--Peter Ladefoged, Committee Chair. I was the Dept. of Linguistics Chair 1974-78, and Dean of the Graduate Division/Vice Chancellor-Graduate Programs 1979-1989. I served as president of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), was Chair of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Aphasia, am currently Chair of Section Z - Linguistics and the Language Sciences of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, (AAAS) and Vice President of the Permanent International Committee of Linguists. I served as president of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) and was Chair of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Aphasia. I have taught at Oxford, Cambridge, and Stockholm, as well as at summer institutes in Hawaii, Oswego, Ohio, UCLA, Cornell, and Amsterdam.

Honors and Organizations

• Dean, UCLA Graduate Division. (1979-1989)
• Vice-Chancellor for Graduate Programs, UCLA. (1980-1989)
• Chair, UCLA Department of Linguistics. (1972-1976)
• UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award
• UCLA Professional Achievement Award
• President, Association of Graduate Schools (1988)
• President, Linguistic Society of America (1985)
• Fellow: Acoustical Society of America, American Psychological Society, NY Academy of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Visiting Fellow, Wolfson College, Oxford Univ. (1983-1987)
• Vice-President, Board of Trustees, American Friends of Wolfson College
• Elected Member: National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• Chair (1997-98) and Secretary (1994-1997) of Section Z, Linguistics and the Language Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• Vice President of the Permanent International Committee of Linguists
• Aphasia Research Group, World Federation of Neurology (Elected Member)
• McMaster University Centennial Lecturer and Learned Society Visitor (May, 1987
• Ida Beam Professor, University of Iowa (Depts. of Neurology, Psychology, and Linguistics) (1985)
• Cecil H. and Ida Green Visiting Professor, University of British Columbia (1986)
• Phillips Scholar, Harverford College (1974, 1979)
• Honorary Member, Mortar Board, Golden Key Society
• Festschrift: Language, Speech and Mind: Studies in Honor of Victoria A. Fromkin, edited by L.M. Hyman and C.N. Li. NY and London. Routledge. 1988.

Back to Faculty Listings

Return to Linguistics Dept. Homepage

Last Updated: Oct. 11, 1997