Douglas Pulleyblank

University of British Columbia

Douglas Pulleyblank is Professor of Linguistics at the University of British Columbia. He received his PhD in Linguistics from MIT in 1983. Previous positions include: Visiting Professor, University of Ottawa, 2009-2010; Instructor, LSA Summer Institute, 1989, 2003; Girona International Summer School, 1990, 1992, 1996; LOT Summer School, Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics, 1996; Associate Professor, University of Ottawa, 1988-1991; Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, 1984-1988; Assistant Lecturer, University of Ilorin, 1977-1979. Doing his undergraduate degree at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, and then working at the University of Ilorin for two years, Dr. Pulleyblank developed an enduring interest in Nigerian languages, particularly Yoruba, as well as African languages in general. This interest has been focussed on tone and vowel harmony, leading to explorations in autosegmental theory and optimality theoretic frameworks. In recent years, he has become increasingly interested in issues at the interface of phonetics and phonology, and have been examining just how little one needs to attribute to Universal Grammar when building accounts of complex phonological phenomena.