Commencement 2025
UCLA Linguistics Commencement 2025
Sunday, June 15, 2025
5:30 PM
Royce Hall
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Larry M. Hyman
Distinguished Professor, UC Berkeley
Director, France-Berkeley Fund
BA, UCLA, PhD in Linguistics, UCLA
Professor Larry M. Hyman was both an undergraduate and graduate student at UCLA, receiving his PhD in Linguistics in 1972. Except for a two-year leave with a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science (UC Berkeley, 1973-1975), he taught at the University of Southern California from 1971 to 1988. He came to UC Berkeley’s Department of Linguistics in 1988, which he chaired from 1991 to 2002. Professor Hyman has worked extensively on phonological theory, especially tone, and other aspects of language structure – particularly as concerns the history, typology, and description of Bantu and other Niger-Congo languages of Africa. He has written and edited several books, grammars, and numerous theoretical articles in major journals and served as President of the Linguistic Society of America in 2017. Professor Hyman has been Director of the France-Berkeley Fund, since 2010, has held visiting positions in Paris, Lyon and Toulouse, and was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 2022. He currently holds the title of Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School in the Department of Linguistics at UC Berkeley.