Robert Anderson Hall

Background

Robert Anderson Hall Jr. was born on April 4, 1911, in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Robert Anderson Hall and Lolabel House Hall. The family moved to Minneapolis around 1914 and to Brooklyn, New York, in 1919, where Hall attended Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School. In 1923, he changed his name from William Durham Hall to Robert A. Hall Jr. His childhood and early education across the American South, Midwest, and Northeast preceded a career centered on languages, philology, and higher education.

Education

Hall entered Princeton University in 1927 and received an A.B. in 1931 after majoring in French and German literature. He then studied at the University of Chicago, where he pursued linguistics with Harry Hoijer and Leonard Bloomfield and classical Indo-European languages with Carl Darling Buck and George Bobrinskoy, including Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Avestan, and Old Persian. During a period in Italy he studied Italian literature and historical linguistics and received a Doctor of Letters from the University of Rome in 1934. He completed the remaining requirements for his University of Chicago master's degree in 1935 and did not pursue a doctorate there because of his Rome degree.

Career

Hall began teaching at the University of Puerto Rico in 1937 and remained there until 1939. He subsequently taught at Princeton University in 1939–1940 and at Brown University from 1940 to 1942. During the Second World War he worked with the U.S. Armed Forces Institute and contributed to the Army Specialized Training Program, helping prepare language textbooks and instructional materials in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Melanesian Pidgin. He joined Cornell University in 1946 at the invitation of J. Milton Cowan, became an associate professor of linguistics, and was promoted to full professor in 1950. At Cornell he helped establish the Division of Modern Languages and taught and researched linguistics and Italian. He directed the Cornell-Ford English Language Program in 1966–1967 and retired from active teaching in the mid-1970s, receiving the title Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Italian. His scholarship covered comparative and structural Romance linguistics, Italian language and literature, general linguistics, and pidgin and creole languages. He also wrote on language teaching, the history of linguistics, P. G. Wodehouse, and the Kensington Rune-Stone, whose authenticity he defended.

Achievements

• Helped establish the Division of Modern Languages at Cornell University after joining the faculty in 1946.

• Published more than fifty books and over five hundred articles on linguistics, philology, language teaching, literature, and related subjects.

• Became an early and influential promoter of the systematic study of pidgin and creole languages.

• Produced influential language-learning materials for the U.S. Armed Forces during the Second World War.

• Defended the authenticity of the Kensington Rune-Stone in a series of linguistic and historical studies.

Works

• biography

  • A Life for Language: A Biographical Memoir of Leonard Bloomfield

    (A biographical memoir of the linguist Leonard Bloomfield.)

    1990

• Critical edition

  • The Kensington Rune-Stone, Authentic and Important: A Critical Edition

    (A critical edition presenting Hall's case for the authent...)

    1994

• essays

  • Linguistics and Pseudo-Linguistics: Selected Essays, 1965–1985

    (Selected essays addressing linguistics and claims present...)

    1987

  • Language, Literature, and Life: Selected Essays

    (Selected essays on language, literature, and cultural life.)

    1978

  • Stormy Petrel in Linguistics

    (A collection of essays on linguistics.)

    1975

• grammar

  • Melanesian Pidgin English: Grammar, Texts, Vocabulary

    (A grammar, text collection, and vocabulary of Melanesian ...)

    1943

  • Haitian Creole: Grammar, Texts, Vocabulary

    (A grammar, text collection, and vocabulary of Haitian Cre...)

    1953

  • Descriptive Italian Grammar

    (A structural description of Italian grammar.)

    1948

  • La struttura dell'italiano

    (A structural study of the Italian language.)

    1971

  • An Analytical Grammar of the Hungarian Language

    (A grammatical analysis of Hungarian.)

    1938

• Historical linguistics

  • External History of the Romance Languages

    (A study of the external history and development of the Ro...)

    1974

  • Proto-Romance Phonology

    (A reconstruction of Proto-Romance phonology.)

    1976

• historical study

  • The Kensington Rune-Stone is Genuine: Linguistic, Practical, Methodological Considerations

    (An argument for the authenticity of the Kensington Rune-S...)

    1982

• History of linguistics

  • American Linguistics, 1925–1969: Three Essays

    (Three essays on the development of American linguistics.)

    1976

• Language learning

  • New Ways to Learn a Foreign Language

    (A work on methods of foreign-language learning.)

    1966

• Language textbook

  • Italian for Modern Living

    (An Italian-language instructional work.)

    1959

• Linguistics

  • Hands Off Pidgin English!

    (A study defending the linguistic status and use of pidgin...)

    1955

  • Linguistics and Your Language

    (An introduction to linguistic concepts and language struc...)

    1960

  • Idealism in Romance Linguistics

    (A study of idealist approaches in Romance linguistics.)

    1963

  • Leave Your Language Alone!

    (A work on language usage and linguistic analysis.)

    1950

  • Pidgin and Creole Languages

    (A major study of pidgin and creole languages.)

    1966

  • An Essay on Language

    (Essays on the nature and study of language.)

    1968

• Literary biography

  • Antonio Fogazzaro

    (A study of the Italian writer Antonio Fogazzaro.)

    1978

• literary criticism

  • The Comic Style of P. G. Wodehouse

    (An analysis of P. G. Wodehouse's comic style.)

    1974

• Literary history

  • A Short History of Italian Literature

    (A history of Italian literature.)

    1951

• Phonetics

  • Sound and Spelling in English

    (A study of the relationship between English pronunciation...)

    1961

• textbook

  • Introductory Linguistics

    (An introductory textbook on linguistics.)

    1964

Membership

Hall participated actively in professional and cultural organizations. He served as vice president of the Linguistic Society of America in 1961, vice president of the American Association of Teachers of Italian in 1945, and president of the Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States in 1984–1985. He was also a member of the Modern Language Association of America. His long interest in P. G. Wodehouse led to membership in the Wodehouse Society and service as its president during 1983–1985.

• Served as vice president in 1945.

  American Association of Teachers of Italian , United States

  1945

• Served as vice president in 1961.

  Linguistic Society of America , United States

  1961

• Modern Language Association of America , United States

• Served as president from 1983 to 1985.

  Wodehouse Society , United States

  1983 - 1985

• Served as president in 1984–1985.

  Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States , Canada and United States

  1984 - 1985

Personality

Hall was intellectually independent and wide-ranging in his interests. His scholarly interests extended from Romance philology and language teaching to pidgin and creole languages, the work of Leonard Bloomfield, P. G. Wodehouse's comic style, and the Kensington Rune-Stone. He was a vocal critic of Noam Chomsky's theories and maintained controversial views about the rune-stone's authenticity.

Interests

• P. G. Wodehouse and the Kensington Rune-Stone.

• Writers

  P. G. Wodehouse

• Music & Bands

  Hall sang in choirs and choruses and composed a Mass in Latin.

Connections

Hall was the son of Robert Anderson Hall and Lolabel House Hall. He married Frances L. Adkins in 1936; they had three children, one son and two daughters. After Adkins's death in 1975, he married Alice M. Colby-Hall. His professional association with J. Milton Cowan brought him to Cornell University, where he became a central figure in the development of modern languages and linguistics.

Father:

Robert Anderson Hall

Mother:

Lolabel House Hall

Wife:

Frances L. Adkins

Married Hall in 1936; they had three children.

Wife:

Alice M. Colby-Hall

Married Hall after the death of Frances L. Adkins in 1975.

Son:

Philip Hall

Daughter:

Diana Goodal

Daughter:

Caroline Erickson

References

• Cornell University Memorial Statement for Robert Anderson Hall, Jr. Memorial statement documenting Hall's Cornell career and service to the university.
  1997
• Guide to the Robert A. Hall, Jr. Papers Archival guide documenting Hall's family background, education, teaching career, personal papers, and selected publications.
  2002