Curriculum Vitae
Robert P. Stockwell
Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics, UCLA
Address: (Home) 4000 Hayvenhurst Ave, Encino, CA 91436
(Office) Department of Linguistics, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Phone: (Home) (818) 783-1719 (Office) (310) 925-8675
E-Mail: Stockwel@Ucla.Edu
Born June 12, 1925, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Education: BA. (English and Greek) 1946, University of Virginia
MA. (English) 1949, University of Virginia
Ph.D. (English Philology) 1952, University of Virginia
Experience:
1952-56 School of Languages, Foreign Service Institute, Department of State (in charge of Spanish and Portuguese language instruction; co-authored the FSI Spanish text which was the main instructional tool at FSI for the next 20 years and became the principal model for the MLA Modern Spanish and the ALM series of language texts from Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
1956-66 Professor of English, UCLA (Assistant Professor 1956, Associate Professor 1958, Full Professor 1962). Responsible for graduate and undergraduate courses in history and structure of English language.
1966-1994: Professor of Linguistics, UCLA. Responsible for graduate and undergraduate courses in historical linguistics, history of English, syntactic theory, historical theory.
1994--: Professor Emeritus, Recalled to Active Service 1994-1999, Department of Linguistics, UCLA
1963-66 Chair, Interdepartmental Program in Linguistics, UCLA
1966-73 Founding Chair, Department of Linguistics, UCLA
1980-84 Chair, Department of Linguistics, UCLA
Visiting professorships (summers): 1955, 1956 Georgetown University; 1960 University of the Philippines; 1961 University of Texas; 1965 University of Michigan; 1979 University of Salzburg.
Associate Director, Linguistic Institute at University of Salzburg 1979
Director, Linguistic Institute at UCLA 1983
Honors and Awards
1963-64 Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies
1968 Distinguished Teaching Award, UCLA Alumni Association
1968 Distinguished Teaching Award, UCLA Graduate Student Association
Festschrift (in honor of 60th birthday, June 12, 1985) On Language: Rhetorica, Phonologica, Syntactica, a Festschrift for Robert P. Stockwell from his Friends and Colleagues. Edited by C.K. Duncan-Rose and Theo Vennemann. London: Routledge 1988.
Editorial Service
Associate Editor, Language 1973-82
Associate Editor, Hispanic Linguistics 1983-89
Associate Editor, Folia Linguistica Historica, 1976--
Associate Editor, Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, 1984--
Associate Editor, English Language and Linguistics, 1996--
University Service
Academic Senate: Committee on Committees 1975-78 (Chair 1976-77); 1996 -- 1998
Academic Senate: Committee on Educational Policy 1979-81 (Chair 1980-81)
Academic Senate: Coordinating Council of Academic Programs and Policies 1981-82 (Chair)
Academic Senate: Executive Board, Academic Senate 1981-82
Dean’s Appointment: Chair, Task Force on Language Teaching at UCLA 1991-92
Dean’s Advisory Panel (Humanities) 1990-92
Academic Senate: Committee on Research, Faculty Grants Committee, Humanities 1992—95
Academic Senate: Task Force on Faculty Teaching Workload, 1993-1994
Committee Service after 1994 (retirement date)
Academic Senate: Committee on Budget and Planning, 1995
Academic Senate: Committee on Committees 1996-1998
Academic Senate: Council on Research 1998-2003
Statewide Senate: University Committee on Research Programs 1998
Member Governing Board, UCLA Faculty Center 1994-1996, 1997-1999
Member, Executive Board, UCLA Faculty Association, 1998--2001
Member, Executive Board, UCLA Emeriti Association, 1998--2001
Work Published prior to Retirement in 1994
1. 1951. Robert P. Stockwell and C.W. Barritt. "Some Old English graphemic-phonemic correspondences: æ, ea, and a." Studies in Linguistics, Occasional Papers 4. (104 pages)
2. 1953. Robert P. Stockwell. "Concerning description and hypothesis." Studies in Linguistics 11. 1-2.
3. 1953. Robert P. Stockwell. Review of Lexical number in Spanish nouns, with reference to their English equivalents, by James E. Iannucci. Studies in Linguistics 11.1-2. 33-4.
4. 1955. Robert P. Stockwell and C.W. Barritt. "The Old English short digraphs: some considerations." Language 31. 372-89.
5. 1955. J. Donald Bowen and Robert P. Stockwell. "The phonemic interpretation of semivowels in Spanish." Language 31. 236-40.
Reprinted in Readings in Linguistics, ed. Martin Joos. NY:ACLS, 1958
6. 1955. Robert P. Stockwell. "The preparation of the Foreign Service Institute Spanish Materials: A Case History." Monarch 8: 33-50.
7. 1956. Robert P. Stockwell, J. Donald Bowen and Ismael Silva-Fuenzalida. "Spanish juncture and intonation." Language 31: 641-65.
Reprinted in Readings in Linguistics, ed. Martin Joos. NY:ACLS, 1958
8. 1956. Robert P. Stockwell and J. Donald Bowen. "A further note on Spanish semivowels." Language 32: 290-2.
Reprinted in Readings in Linguistics, ed. Martin Joos. NY:ACLS, 1958
9. 1956. Robert P. Stockwell . "On phonemes and allophones." Hispania 39. 325-6.
10. 1956. Robert P. Stockwell and J. Donald Bowen. "The apocopation of certain adjectives in Spanish." Hispania 39. 349-51
11. 1956. Robert P. Stockwell. Review of The Field of Yiddish, by Uriel Weinreich. Language 32. 374-84.
12. 1957. J. Donald Bowen and Robert P. Stockwell. "Orthography and respelling in teaching Spanish." Hispania 40. 200-5.
13. 1957. Robert P. Stockwell. Review of The National Interest and Foreign Languages, by William Riley Parker. Language 33. 497-502.
14. 1957. Robert P. Stockwell, J. Donald Bowen, Guillermo Segreda, Hugo Montero U., and I. Silva-Fuenzalida. FSI Spanish: Basic Course. (Units 1-15, Units 16-30; xii + 686 pages; xi + 708 pages)
Washington, D.C.: US. Government Printing Office.
15. 1957. Robert P. Stockwell. Review of James Douglas on English Pronunciation c. 1740, by Borje Holmberg. Language 33. 246-53.
16. 1957. Robert P. Stockwell and J. Donald Bowen. "A rejoinder (on the respelling issue)," Hispania 40.463-4.
17. 1957. Robert P. Stockwell . Review of The Pronunciation of English, by Daniel Jones.Language 33. 614-21.
18. 1958. Robert P. Stockwell "The phonology of Old English: A structural sketch". Studies in Linguistics 13. 13-24.
Reprinted in Readings in the History of the English Language, ed. by Charles T.
Scott and Jon L. Erickson. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 136-45.
19. 1958. Robert P. Stockwell .Review of Audio-Visual Aids in Language Teaching, by Ruth Hirsch, Studies in Linguistics 13. 3-4.
20. 1959. Robert P. Stockwell, J. Donald Bowen, Guillermo Segreda, Hugo Montero U., and Ismael Silva-Fuenzalida. FSI Spanish: Basic Course (Units 31-45; x + 602 pages). Washington: US. Government Printing Office.
21. 1959. Robert P. Stockwell. "Structural dialectology: a proposal". American Speech 35. 258-68.
22. 1959. Robert P. Stockwell and Rudolph Willard. "Further notes on Old English Phonology." Studies in Linguistics 14.10-13.
23. 1959. Robert P. Stockwell. Review of Studies in Linguistic Analysis, ed. by J. R. Firth, in International Journal of American Linguistic 25.254-9.
24. 1959. Alfred L. Larr and Robert P. Stockwell. "A test of speech intelligibility." The Volta Review 61.403-8.
25. 1959. Robert P. Stockwell and J. Donald Bowen. Review of Spoken English, by David T. Thomson and Robert P. Lyons. The MST English Quarterly 9.2-4.
26. 1960. Robert P. Stockwell. "The place of intonation in a generative grammar of English." Language 36: 360-67.
Reprinted in Readings in Applied English Linguistics, ed. H. B. Allen. New York: Appleton Century Crofts, 1964.
Reprinted in Readings on Intonation, ed. Dwight Bolinger. Penguin 1972.
27. 1960. Robert P.Stockwell. Review of English Intonation: Its Form and Function, by Maria Schubiger. Language 36.544-48
28. 1960. Bowen, J. Donald and Robert P. Stockwell. Patterns of Spanish Pronunciation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
29. 1961. Robert P.Stockwell. "The Middle English ‘Long Close’ and ‘Long Open’ Mid Vowels." The University of Texas Studies in Literature and Language 2.529-38.
Reprinted in Approaches to English Historical Linguistics, ed. Roger Lass, 154-63. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969.
Reprinted in Readings in the History of the English Language, ed. Charles T. Scott and Jon L. Erickson, 196-205. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1968.
30. 1961. Robert P. Stockwell and C. Westbrook Barritt. "Scribal practice: Some assumptions." Language 37.75-82.
Reprinted in Approaches to English Historical Linguistics, ed. Roger Lass, 133-41. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969.
31. 1961. Robert P. Stockwell. Review of The Groundwork of English Intonation, by Roger Kingdon. International Journal of American Linguistics 27.278-83.
32. 1962. Robert P. Stockwell. "On the analysis of English intonation". Proceedings of the Second Texas Conference on Problems of Linguistic Analysis in English, ed. A.A. Hill, 39-60. Austin: University of Texas Press.
33. 1962. Robert P. Stockwell. Review of The First Five Minutes, by R. Pittenger, C.F. Hockett, and J. Danehy, International Journal of American Linguistics 28.293-96.
34. 1962. Robert P. Stockwell. "Literature, language teaching, linguistics." ACLS Newsletter 12.1-8.
35. 1962. Paul Pimsleur, Robert P. Stockwell, and Andrew L. Comrey. "Foreign language learning ability." Journal of Educational Psychology 53.15-26.
36. 1963. Robert P. Stockwell. "The transformational model of generative or predictive grammar," Chap. 3.23-46. Natural Language and the Computer, ed. by Paul L. Garvin. New York: McGraw-Hill.
37. 1963. Robert P. Stockwell. Review of Generality, Gradience, and theAll-or-none, by Dwight L. Bolinger. Language 39.87.91.
38. 1964. Robert P. Stockwell. "Grammar? Today?" Journal of the Conference on College Composition and Communication 15.56.59.
39. 1964. Robert P. Stockwell. Review of Modern English Structure, by Barbara M. H. Strang. Language 40.483-87.
40. 1964. Robert P. Stockwell. "On the utility of an overall pattern in historical English phonology." Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Linguists. Mouton: The Hague.
Reprinted in Approaches to English Historical Linguistics, ed. Roger Lass, 88-96. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1969.
Reprinted in Readings in the History of the English Language, ed. Charles T. Scott and Jon L. Erickson, 206-12. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1968.
41. 1964. Robert P. Stockwell. "Transformational grammar in perspective." In English Studies Today, third Series 51-67. Edinburgh: University Press.
42. 1965. Robert P. Stockwell and J. Donald Bowen. The Sounds of English and Spanish. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (xii + 168 pages)
43. 1965. Robert P. Stockwell, J. Donald Bowen, and John W. Martin. The Grammatical Structures of English and Spanish. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
44. 1965. Robert P. Stockwell. Review of Internal Structure of Clauses in English and Main Sentence Elements in the Book of Margery Kempe, by Alfred Reszkiewicz. Language 41.155-66.
45. 1968. Robert P. Stockwell. "Contrastive analysis and lapsed time," Georgetown Monograph Series on Languages and Linguistics, No. 21,ed. by James E. Alatis, 11-26. Washington: Georgetown University
Press.
46. 1968. Robert P. Stockwell, Paul Schachter, and Barbara Partee. Integration of Transformational Theories of English Syntax. Two vols., pp. xi + 1057, US. Air Force Systems Command, Hanscom Field, Bedford, Mass.
Reviewed in Language Sept. 1972 by Paul Chapin.
Reprinted by National Technical Information Service, US. Dept. of Commerce, #AD 703300, Washington, DC. 1970. RPS is principal author of chapters entitled "Case Placement", "Nominalization", and "Relativization" (pp. 37-84, 445-526, and 527-624) and coordinator of the project.
47. 1969. Robert P. Stockwell. "Mirrors in the history of English pronunciation." Studies in Language, Literature, and Culture of the Middle Ages and Later, ed. by E. Bagby Atwood and Archibald A. Hill, 20-37. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
Reprinted in Approaches to English Historical Linguistics, ed. by Roger Lass, 228-46. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969.
48. 1969. Robert P. Stockwell. "Foreword." Approaches to English Historical Linguistics, ed. by Roger Lass, iii-iv. See supra.
49. 1969. Robert P. Stockwell. "Generative grammar." In Linguistics Today, ed. by Archibald A. Hill, 259-69. (Voice of America, Forum Lectures). New: Basic Books.
50. 1972. Robert P. Stockwell and Ronald K. S. Macaulay (editors, and authors of the introduction). Linguistic Change and Generative Theory. Indiana University Press: Bloomington, Indiana. (xviii + 301 pages). Translated as Cambio Linguistico y Teoria Generativa by Jose L. Melena. Madrid: Editorial Gredos. 1977.
51. 1972. Robert P. Stockwell. "The role of intonation: Reconsiderations and other considerations." Readings on Intonation, ed. by Dwight L. Bolinger. Harmonsworth, England: Penguin Publishers, 87-109.
52. 1973. Robert P. Stockwell, Paul Schachter, and Barbara Partee. Major Syntactic Structures of English. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. (viii + 847 pages)
53. 1973. Robert P. Stockwell. "Problems in the interpretation of the great English vowel shift." Studies in Linguistics: Papers in Honor of George L. Trager, ed. by M. Estellie Smith. The Hague: Mouton, 344-62.
Also in Essays on the Sound Pattern of English, ed. by D.L. Goyvaerts and G. K. Pullum. Ghent: Story-Scientia, 1975.
54. 1977. Robert P. Stockwell. Foundations of Syntactic Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice-Hall. (xii + 147 pages)
55. 1977. Robert P. Stockwell, Dale E. Elliott, and Marian C. Bean. Workbook in Syntactic Theory and Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice-Hall. (xii + 147 pages)
56. 1977. Robert P. Stockwell. "Motivations for exbraciation in Old English." Mechanisms of Syntactic Change, ed. by Charles Li, 291-314. Austin: University of Texas Press.
57. 1978. Robert P. Stockwell. "Perseverance in the English vowel shift." Recent Developments in Historical Phonology, ed. J. Fisiak, 337-48. Mouton: The Hague.
58. 1980. Robert P. Stockwell. "Summation and assessment of theories." Current Approaches to Syntax, ed. by Edith Moravcsik and Jessica Wirth, 353-81. New York: Academic Press.
59. 1984. Robert P. Stockwell. "On the history of the verb-second rule in English." Historical Syntax, ed. by Jacek Fisiak. The Hague: Mouton. 576-92.
60. 1986. Robert P. Stockwell. "Assessments of alternative explanations of the Middle English Phenomenon of High Vowel Lowering when lengthened in the Open Syllable". Papers from the Fourth International Congress on English Historical Linguistics, ed. by Roger Eaton, Olga Fischer, Willem Koopman, and Frederike van der Leek. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter, 125-34.
61. 1986. Robert P. Stockwell. "Grammar as Speaker’s Knowledge versus Grammar as Linguists’ Characterization of Norms." Linguistics acrossHistorical and Geographical Boundaries, ed. by Dieter Kastovsky and Aleksander Szwedek. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 125-34.
62. 1988. Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. "The English vowel shift: Problems of coherence and explanation." Luick Revisited, ed. by Dieter Kastovsky, Gero Bauer, and Jacek Fisiak. Tubingen: Gunter Narr, 355-94.
63. 1988. Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. "A rejoinder to Lass." Luick Revisited, ed. by Dieter Kastovsky, Gero Bauer, and Jacek Fisiak. Tubingen: Gunter Narr, 411-17.
64. 1990. Donka Minkova and Robert P. Stockwell. "Verb phrase conjunction in Old English." In Historical Linguistics 1987: Papers from the Eighth International Conference on Historical Linguistics, ed. by Henning Andersen and Konrad Koerner. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 499-515.
65. 1990. Robert P. Stockwell. Review Article on Syntactic Case and Morphological Case in the History of English, by Ans van Kemenade. Lingua 20.90-100.
66. 1991.Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. "Subordination and word order change in the history of English." In Historical English Syntax, ed. by Dieter Kastovsky. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 367-408.
67. 1991. Donka Minkova and Robert P. Stockwell. "Poetic influence on prose word order in Old English." In The Evidence for Old English: Edinburgh Studies in English Language, Vol. 2, 147-160. Ed. by Fran Coleman. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
68. 1991. Donka Minkova and Robert P. Stockwell. "The Early Modern English vowels, more o’ Lass." Diachronica 3.1-18.
69. 1992. Donka Minkova and Robert P. Stockwell. "On the role of prosodic features in syntactic change." Internal and External Factors in Syntactic Change, ed. by Dieter Stein and Marinel Gerritsen. Berlin: de Gruyter, 417-33.
70. 1992. Donka Minkova and Robert P. Stockwell. "Homorganic Clusters as moric busters in the history of English: The case of -ld, -nd, -mb" In History of Englishes: New Methods and Interpretations in Historical Linguistics, ed. by Matti Rissanen et al. Berlin: de Gruyter, 191-207.
71. 1992. Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. "Kuhn’s laws and verb-second: On Kendall’s theory of syntactic displacement in Beowulf".On Germanic Linguistics: Issues and Methods, ed. by Irmengard Rauch, Gerald F. Carr, and Robert L. Kyes. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 315-337.
72. 1993. Robert P. Stockwell and Karn King. Review Article on Jan Terje Faarlund, Syntactic Change: Toward a Theory of Historical Syntax. In Nordic Journal of Linguistics 16.1.60-68.
73. 1993. Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. "Kuhn’s laws and Old English verse." In Studies in Early Germanic Linguistics, ed. by Toril Swan. Berlin: de Gruyter.
74. 1993. Robert P. Stockwell. "On the evidence for bimoric vowels in early English." In Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Amsterdam 1991. Ed by Jaap van Marle. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
75. 1993. Robert P. Stockwell. "Dwight L. Bolinger." Language 69.99-112.
Published Work since 1994 (date of retirement)
76. 1994. Donka Minkova and Robert P. Stockwell. "Syllable weight, prosody, and meter in Old English." Diachronica Vol. 11.1.
77. 1994. Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. Review of Vol I, Cambridge History of the English Language, ed. by Richard Hogg. Journal of Linguistics.30.515-527.
78. 1994. Donka Minkova and Robert P. Stockwell. Review of Vol II, Cambridge History of the English Language, ed. by Norman Blake. Journal of Linguistics.30.528-547.
79. 1995. Donka Minkova and Robert P. Stockwell. Review of Robert Fulk, A History of Old English Meter. Language.71.359-75
80. 1996. Robert P. Stockwell. "Old English Short Diphthongs and the Theory of Glide Emergence." In Derek Britton, ed., EnglishHistorical Linguistics 1994. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 57-72.
81. 1996. Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. "Against the notion ‘Metrical Grammar’". In Irmengard Rauch, Proceedings of the 3rd Berkeley- Germanic Linguistics Roundtable (April 1994). Berlin: Mouton.
82. 1997. Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. The Prosody of Beowulf. In A Beowulf Handbook, ed. John Niles and Robert Bjork. Univ. of Nebraska Press. 55-84.
83. 1996. Robert P. Stockwell. "Some recent theories of Old English metrics."In Early English Metrics, ed. by Christopher McCully. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 73-94.
84. 1996. Donka Minkova and Robert P. Stockwell. "Chaucerian Phonemics: Evidence and Interpretation." In Raymond Hickey and Stanislaw Puppel, eds., Language History and Linguistic Modelling. Mouton de Gruyter, 29-57.
85. 1997. Robert P. Stockwell. Review of David Denison, English Historical Syntax. Language 73.4.858-860.
86. 1997. Robert P. Stockwell. "Incompatibilities among theories of Anglo-Saxon metrics." In Jane Hill, P.J. Mistry, and Lyle Campbell, eds., The Life of Language: Papers in Linguistic in Honor of William Bright. Mouton de Gruyter. 473-480.
87. 1997. Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. "Old English Metrics and the Phonology of Resolution." Germanic Studies inHonor of Anatoly Liberman. Nowele Vol. 31-32, 389-406.
88. 1997. Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. "On Drifts and Shifts." Studia Anglica Posnaniensia XXXI. 283-303.
89. 1998. Donka Minkova and Robert P. Stockwell. "The origins of long-short allomorphy in English." Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on English Historical Linguistics. Ed. by Jacek Fisiak. Berlin: Mouton.
90. 2000.Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. "Explanations of sound change: Contradictions between dialect data and theories of chain shifting." Clive Upton and Katie Wales, eds. Dialectal Variation in English. Leeds Studies in English XXX, pp 83-102.
91. 2000. Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. "On the partial-contact origins of English pentameter verse." D. Kastovsky, ed., Contact Influences in the History of English, Berlin: Mouton.
92. 2000. Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. "What happened to Old English clitic pronouns and why?" Christiane Dalton-Puffer and Nikolaus Ritt, Eds. Words: Structure, Meaning, Function, 289-307.Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
93. 2001. Robert P. Stockwell and Donka Minkova. English Words: History and Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
94. 2002, Robert Stockwell and Donka Minkova. "Interpreting the Old and Middle English close vowels." Language Sciences 24.447-457.
95. 2002. Robert P. Stockwell. "Retraction and rounding in Old English breaking." Sounds and systems: Studies in Structure and Change. Ed. by David Restle and Dietmar Zaefferer. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 121-137.
96. 2002. Donka Minkova and Robert Stockwell, eds. Studies in the History of the English Language: A Millennial Perspective. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
97. 2002. Robert Stockwell. "How much shifting actually occurred in the historical English vowel shift?" In Donka Minkova and Robert Stockwell, eds., Studies in the History of the English Language: A Millennial Perspective. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 267-281.
Summary of Experience of Robert P. Stockwell serving as an expert witness in matters of Litigation, up-dated to January 2003
1. Harbor Ins. Co. vs. Montgomery Drilling, Case No. LASC No. C 101 083.
Attorney: David C. Bogert.
Issue: Whether the verb have in the phrase "have been reduced to physical possession above the surface of the earth" entails, as a matter of common usage of the present perfect, that the substance is now above the surface for the insurance coverage to be effective.
Action: Gave deposition on behalf of Montgomery Drilling, on Jan. 16, 1980.
Outcome: Settled out of court, in accord with my view.
2. Imperial vs. Pacific Indemnity (ASA Reference No. 568)
Attorney: Mark Oring, of Kroll, Edelman, Elser and Wilson
Issue: Whether a clause beginning with the word "except" should take exception to the entire preceding material or only to the last of several preceding clauses.
Action: I submitted a technical opinion with supporting documentation on 5/13/77.
Outcome: I was never informed.
3. Costello vs. Colonial Penn Franklin Insurance Co.
Attorney: Mr. Richard B. Castle, of Shielf and Smith.
Issue: Whether the syntax of a sentence in a contract stipulated that a hospital used for rehabilitation purposes should or should not be considered to count as a hospital for general insurance coverage.
Action: I argued that the wording was fully ambiguous. Since that didn’t help Colonial Penn Franklin, I was paid for my time and that was the end of my participation.
Outcome: Shielf and Smith did in fact obtain a defense verdict, contrary to my view of the wording, which was not in the trial record.
4. United California Bank vs. Nancy Ross, SCLA No. 905,372
Attorney: Steve Rubin, of Cummins, White, and Breidenbach
Issue: Whether a modifying clause had as its domain only the immediately preceding material, or that material plus some that appeared still further back in the sentence. It came down to punctuation.
Action: I offered an opinion in writing, on Feb. 13, 1978.
Outcome: Settled prior to trial, in accord with my opinion.
5. Lloyd’s vs. McMahon, SCLA No. C 187,563
Attorney: C. J. Fleischman
Issue: Level of intelligibility of an insurance paragraph for an ordinary educated speaker of English. I testified, in a formal deposition given on July 6, 1978, before the attorney for Lloyd’s, Mr. Cary Samuels, Mr. Fleischman (for McMahon), and Mr. J. K. Klinger (for a cross-defendant), that its syntax was very obscure.
Action: Deposition, as just stated.
Outcome: Trial was scheduled for Mar. 19, 1978, but it was settled immediately prior to that, in accord with my opinion.
6. Holbrook Press, Inc., vs. Gregory Barnes
Attorney: Don Fesler, for La Follette, Johnson, Schroeter, and DeHass
Issue: Semantics of the sentence, "When the MS. has been accepted and approved, it will be published at the publisher’s expense."
Action: Two-hour conference with lawyer for Holbrook persuaded him that he would do better to settle, which he did.
7. Pfizer Antibiotic Triple Damage Action
Attorney: David Krinsky, of Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher
Issue: The meaning of "appreciable" in the phrase "No appreciable amounts of tetracycline were co-produced".
Action: Extensive research on my part into how the various dictionaries arrived at their conflicting definitions. My research was used extensively in developing the attorneys’ cross-examination of experts for the other side, but I neither testified nor was deposed.
Outcome: unknown to me.
8. Optyle Eyewear (Carrera) vs. Style Companies
Attorney: Lewis Anten
Issue: The meaning of "carrera", in particular whether it had a generic meaning "race course" or whether it could be claimed as the business property of a particular product.
Action: I submitted a written opinion and evidence in support of the generic interpretation.
Outcome: The case was settled in accord with my opinion.
9. Leathersmith of London vs. Philip J. S. Alleyn
Attorneys: The Legal Services Institute, Ms. Cheryl di Cicco
Issue: Whether "leathersmith" is a legitimate common coinage like "blacksmith" or "silversmith" or whether it is a word of such unusual structure as to be restricted to a single company name.
Action: I submitted a written opinion in support of its legitimacy as a common coinage.
Outcome: The case was settled in accord with my opinion.
10. People vs. ABC International, et al.
Attorney: Ms. Ruth Kwan, Deputy City Attorney, Consumer Protection Section
Issue: Whether the grammatical structure of a sentence in a contract was or was not capable of construal in two conflicting ways.
Action: I submitted a written opinion in August of 1988.
Outcome: The defendant corporation pled no contest. In the words of the attorney, "The successful prosecution was made possible by your superb analysis of subsection c of 537e."
11. Radojkovich vs. Cubalevic
Attorney: Martin Shucart
Issue: Whether Mrs. Cubalevic was in fact illiterate in English even though she could read her native Serbo-Croatian at a fourth-grade level.
Action: I testified in LA. County Superior Court in December of 1988.
Outcome: Unknown to me.
12.The will of Mrs. Lisa
Attorneys: Breidenback, Swainston, Crispo and Way
Issue: Whether a hand-written will contained language characteristic of the usage of the deceased.
Action: I had had a mild stroke (1989) just before Mr. Breidenback approached me to work with him on this case. I was therefore unwilling to be deposed or to testify, because I felt the nervous pressure would be dangerous for recovery (which is now complete and not any longer a problem). We solicited the help of a colleague, Prof. Donka Minkova, to stand in for me in the deposition and in the trial; I played the role of adviser only, but the opinions she was representing were jointly hers and mine.
Outcome: The case was settled in accord with our view, though I rather felt that our evidence had little influence on the Judge’s final conclusion.
13. Martin Container, Inc. v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co., et al. (September, 2000)
Attorney: Geoffrey Gaidos, of Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker LLP, representing Hartford.
Issue: Whether the phrase "Martin Container Inc., 401K Plan" can or should be taken to refer to one entity, or two entities.
Action: I was deposed on August 14, 2000, by the attorney for Martin Container (Ms. Lisa Duckworth), and I was put on the witness stand a few weeks later (September 1, 2000) for testimony and cross-examination lasting about an hour.
Outcome: Martin Container won the case, on grounds unrelated to the issue I was asked to address.
14. Amkor Pacific.
Attorney: William G. Lane, Irvine, CA. (September, 2002)
Issue: Whether "diamonique" and "diamonelle" are sufficiently different to justify separate trademarks. I supported the position that they are indeed sufficiently different, submitting a six page document giving arguments for this position.
Action: I was deposed on Sept 18, 2002.
Outcome: Still in process.
In addition, there have been about two dozen instances where I have given a quick opinion over the phone when I have been called by attorneys and informed of the nature of the litigation. In some of these my opinion has not been supportive and the matter has ended there. In others I have suggested that a linguistic opinion would be irrelevant.