Bert Vaux

Bert Vaux
Born	November 19, 1968 Houston, Texas
Residence	Cambridgeshire, England, UK
Fields	Linguistics
Institutions	Harvard University University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee University of Cambridge
Alma mater	University of Chicago Harvard University
Known for	Vaux's Law

Bert Vaux (born November 19, 1968, Houston, Texas; pronounced /vɒks/ ^[1]) teaches phonology and morphology at the University of Cambridge. Previously, he taught for nine years at Harvard and three years at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Vaux specializes in phonological theory, dialectology, field methodology, and languages of the Caucasus. Vaux was Editor of the journal Annual of Armenian Linguistics from 2001 to 2006 and is co-editor of the book series Oxford Surveys in Generative Phonology.

Professional history

• Reader in Linguistics, University of Cambridge, 2010-
• University Lecturer in Phonology and Morphology, University of Cambridge, 2006-2010
• Professor of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, 2003-2006
• Asst. and Assoc. Professor of Linguistics, Harvard University, 1994-2003
• PhD, Harvard University, 1994

Vaux's Law (as labelled by Avery & Idsardi 2001, Iverson & Salmons 2003), which he first formulated in a 1998 article in Linguistic Inquiry, states that laryngeally unspecified—i.e. voiceless--fricatives become [GW]/[sg] in systems contrasting fricatives without reference to [GW]/[sg]; thus they are to be aspirated or, more technically, to be pronounced with a spread glottis.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Selected publications

• "The Phonology of Armenian", Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-19-823661-0
• "Introduction to Linguistic Field Methods", Munich: Lincom Europa, 1999. ISBN 978-3-89586-198-7
• "Rules, Constraints, and Phonological Phenomena", Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. (ed. with Andrew Nevins) ISBN 978-0-19-922651-1
• "Linguistic Field Methods", Wipf & Stock Publishers (January 2007) ISBN 978-1-59752-764-4
• "Laryngeal markedness and aspiration" (with Bridget Samuels), Phonology 22:395-436, 2005.
• "Syllabification in Armenian, Universal Grammar, and the lexicon," Linguistic Inquiry 34.1, 2003.
• "Feature spreading and the representation of place of articulation," Linguistic Inquiry 31, 2000.
• "The laryngeal specifications of fricatives," Linguistic Inquiry 29.3, 1998.
• "The status of ATR in feature geometry," Linguistic Inquiry 27, 1996.
• "Eastern Armenian: A Textbook", Caravan Books, 2003. ISBN 978-0-88206-095-8

Publications mentioning Vaux's Law

• "Distinctive Feature Theory" by T. Alan Hall, Walter de Gruyter, 2001, ISBN 3-11-017033-7^[7]
• "Affricates and the phonetic implementation of laryngeal contrast in Italian", Martin Kraemer, University of Ulster, February 2004^[8]
• "An exception to final devoicing" by Marc van Oostendorp, Meertens Instituut/KNAW ^[9]

Notable press

Vaux is frequently consulted by the press for linguistic articles. For example, in 2004 he discussed product names that contain place names, such as Coney Island hot dogs.^[10] In 2005 he was interviewed in USA Today regarding the differences in regions of the United States about whether to call carbonated soft drinks "soda", or "pop", or "coke".^[11] In 2002-2003 his survey to create a linguistics map for the United States was mentioned in the press.^[12] In 2005 the San Francisco Chronicle mentioned his research about how musician vocabulary affects vocabulary at large.^[13]

Notes

1. Personal communication, January 9, 2011
2. Avery, Peter and William J. Idsardi (2001) "Laryngeal dimensions, completion and enhancement," in T. Alan Hall, ed., Distinctive Feature Theory, 41-70. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter Inc.
3. Iverson, Gregory K. & Joseph C. Salmons (2003). "Laryngeal enhancement in early Germanic," Phonology 20, 43-74.
4. Krämer, Martin (2004)"Affricates and the phonetic implementation of laryngeal contrast in Italian," in the 26 Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft, Mainz, February 25–27.
5. van Oostendorp, Marc (2007) "An Exception to Final Devoicing," in van der Torre, Erik Jan & Jeroen van de Weijer, eds., Voicing in Dutch. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
6. Vaux, Bert (1998) "The Laryngeal Specifications of Fricatives," Linguistic Inquiry 29.3, 497-511.
7. https://books.google.com/books?id=5_N7sRKJ7I0C&pg=PA48
8. http://www.hum.uit.no/a/kraemer/dgfs04.pdf
9. http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/656-0404/656-VAN_OOSTENDORP-0-0.PDF
10. Linguistics prof knows his names The Detroit News, June 6, 2004
11. Pop, soda or Coke? Internet voters seek to settle debate AP, USA Today, 2005
12. Dialects thriving, Internet survey finds by Robert S. Boyd, Knight Ridder News Service, Philadelphia Inquirer, December 25, 2002
13. LANGUAGE: A little South out West by Leslie Guttman, The San Francisco Chronicle, March 13, 2005

External links

• : Bert Vaux's homepage
• hairenik.com: Interview with Bert Vaux (archived 2005)