Education

Illinois Institute of Technology              B.S.      1966             Linguistics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology   Ph.D.    1969             Linguistics

Main Positions Held

1969-1975      Assistant/Associate Professor of Linguistics, Harvard University
1975-1990      Associate/Full Professor of Linguistics, UCLA
1988-1995      Professor of Cognitive Science, The Johns Hopkins University
1994-present  Professor of Linguistics, Yale University
1999-present   Professor of Psychology, Yale University
2006-present   Dorothy R. Diebold Professor of Linguistics, Yale University

Selected Current and Past Professional Activities

Linguistic Society of America: Executive Committee (2002-2005), President (2007)
American Association for the Advancement of Science: Linguistics and Language Science Section Chair, Section Secretary
National Science Foundation: various panels and workshops
Editorial Board, Morphology; Lingue e linguaggio, English Linguistics (Tokyo)
Board of Directors, Haskins Laboratories
Board of Directors, Endangered Language Fund

Selected Honors and Awards

American Council of Learned Societies Fellowships, 1972-73; 1982-83
John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, 1988-89
Fellow, American Academy of Arts & Sciences; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Association for Psychological Science

Current Research Interests

Stephen Anderson’s research is focused on understanding speakers’ knowledge of language as an aspect of the organization of the mind, illustrated in his book (with David Lightfoot) The Language Organ: Linguistics as Cognitive Physiology.  His work covers a variety of areas in the structure of language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology (word structure) and syntax, as well as the grammar of a number of lesser-studied languages, among them Breton, Georgian, Kwakw’ala (a Native Canadian language of Vancouver Island), and Rumantsch.  In addition to books and articles on technical topics in linguistics, he is the author of Doctor Dolittle’s Delusion: Animal Communication and the Uniqueness of Human Language, and has written and taught on topics in animal communication and the evolution of human language.  In the study of speech, he is particularly interested in developing an understanding of ways in which the fine structure of articulatory dynamics may be under linguistic control.  This aspect of the organization of speech contributes to differences among languages and dialects that fall outside the scope of traditional phonetic representation; when it is impaired in association with other abilities in brain damage, it can lead to the striking condition of so-called "acquired foreign accent"