Education
Givón earned his bachelor of science degree cum laude in agriculture from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1959. Attending University of California, Los Angeles, he received a Master of Science degree in horticulture in 1962, a C.Phil in Plant Biochemistry, a Master of Arts degree in linguistics in 1966, and a Doctor of Philosophy in linguistics in 1969, as well as an Teaching English as a Second Language certificate in 1965.
Career
He is one of the founders of functionalism in linguistics. He is one of the founders of the linguistics department at the University of Oregon based on his functional-adaptive approach to language and communication. Research Associate in Lexicography (Systems Development Corporation, 1966–1967).
Research Associate in Bantu Linguistics (University of Zambia 1967–1968).
Assistant Professor of Linguistics and African Languages (University of California, Los Angeles 1969–1974). Associate Professor of Linguistics (University of California, Los Angeles 1974–1979).
Professor of Linguistics (University of California, Los Angeles 1969–1981). Professor of Linguistics (University of Oregon 1981–2002).
Distinguished Professor (emeritus) of Linguistics and Cognitive Science (University of Oregon.
2002– ). Givón"s last general linguistic project was The Genesis of Complex Syntax: Diachrony, Ontogeny, Cognition, Evolution. Work in linguistics His work covers many language areas (Semitic, African, Amerindian, Austronesian, Papuan, Sino-Tibetan, Indo-European), as well as many areas of theoretical linguistics: (syntax, semantics, pragmatics, second language acquisition, pidgins and creoles, discourse and text linguistics, methodology and philosophy of science, philosophy of language, typology and language universals, grammaticalization and historical syntax, cognitive science, language evolution).
Givón is said to have coined the aphorism that "today"s morphology is yesterday"s syntax", in a development of Antoine Meillet"s work on grammaticalisation.
He was the editor of the book series Typological Studies in Language published by John Benjamins Publishing Company.