Raimo Anttila - Department of Linguistics

Raimo Anttila

Professor Emeritus

Ph.D. 1966 Yale

Raimo Anttila (1935-2023) taught in the UCLA Linguistics Department for several decades. He was known for his work in historical linguistics and Indo-European, notably, a widely used textbook; as well as more philosophical studies, often critiquing aspects of generative grammar. In his lifetime this website said, “[his] work deals with Indo-European and some Finno-Ugric, particularly with etymology and loans. There is also a strain of analogy, semiotics, and gestalt theory and gestalt morphology. Another feature is the philosophy of philology, as well as a general touch of history of linguistics”.

Publications

“Field theory of meaning and semantic change.” In G. Kellermann and M. Morrissey, eds., Diachrony within synchrony: language history and cognition, pp. 23-83. Duisburger Arbeiten zur Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft 14. Frankfurt. Peter Lang. (1992)
“Change and metatheory at the beginning of the 1990s: the primacy of history.” In Charles Jones, ed., Historical linguistics: perspectives and problems, pp. 43-73. London. Longman (1993)
Pattern explanation and etymology: collateral evidence and Estonian kolle ‘hearth’, and related words.” Studi Finno-Ugrici 1: 29-48. (1995)