Morris Halle facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Morris Halle
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Halle in 2011
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| Born |
Morris Pinkowitz
July 23, 1923 Liepāja, Latvia
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| Died | April 2, 2018 (aged 94) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, City College of New York |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Doctoral advisor | Roman Jakobson |
| Notable students | Mark Aronoff John Goldsmith Bruce Hayes Mark Liberman Elisabeth Selkirk Moira Yip |
Morris Halle (/ˈhæli/; July 23, 1923 – April 2, 2018) was an important American linguist. He was born in Latvia and later moved to the United States. He became a professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Halle is often called the "father of modern phonology". Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in languages. He was famous for his work on something called generative phonology. This is a way of understanding how people create and understand the sounds of language.
He wrote important books and papers with Noam Chomsky. One famous book was The Sound Pattern of English, published in 1968. He also helped create an early theory of generative metrics, which is about the rhythm and structure of poetry.
Early Life and Education
Morris Halle was born on July 23, 1923, in Liepāja, Latvia. His birth name was Morris Pinkowitz. In 1929, he moved with his family to Riga, another city in Latvia.
He came to the United States in 1940. He finished high school at George Washington Educational Campus. From 1941 to 1943, he studied engineering at the City College of New York.
Halle joined the United States Army in 1943. He left the army in 1946. After that, he went to the University of Chicago. He earned his master's degree in linguistics there in 1948.
He then studied at Columbia University with a famous linguist named Roman Jakobson. Halle became a professor at MIT in 1951. He earned his PhD from Harvard University in 1955.
Contributions to Linguistics
Morris Halle, along with Noam Chomsky, helped start the modern linguistics department at MIT. They changed how people thought about language. They focused on the rules that govern how we speak.
Halle's work on phonology was very important. He helped explain how sounds are put together in words. He showed that there are deep rules for how sounds behave in different languages.
He retired from MIT in 1996. However, he kept working on research and writing. He could speak many languages fluently. These included German, Yiddish, Latvian, Russian, Hebrew, and English.
Awards and Recognition
Morris Halle received many honors during his life. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1960. This is a special award given to people who have done great work in their field.
He was also the President of the Linguistic Society of America in 1974. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was also part of the National Academy of Sciences. These are groups that recognize top scientists and thinkers.
Personal Life
Morris Halle was married to Rosamond Thaxter Halle for 56 years. She was a painter, artist, and activist. She passed away in 2011.
They had three sons together: David, John, and Timothy. Halle lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He died on April 2, 2018, when he was 94 years old.
