Rebecca Posner

Rebecca Posner
Born
Rebecca Reynolds

17 August 1929
Shotton Colliery, County Durham, England
Died19 July 2018(2018-07-19) (aged 88)
NationalityBritish
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1953; died 2006)​
ChildrenTwo
Academic background
Alma materSomerville College, Oxford
Doctoral advisorAlfred Ewert
Academic work
DisciplinePhilology and linguistics
Sub-discipline
Institutions

Rebecca Posner (née Reynolds; 17 August 1929 – 19 July 2018)[1] was a British philologist, linguist and academic, who specialized in Romance languages. Having taught at Girton College, Cambridge, the University of Ghana, and the University of York, she was Professor of the Romance Languages at the University of Oxford from 1978 to 1996.

Early life and education

Posner was born on 17 August 1929 in Shotton Colliery, County Durham, England.[2][3] Her father was a miner.[3] The family moved to the Midlands in the 1930s, and she was educated at Nuneaton High School for Girls, a grammar school in Nuneaton.[4]

In 1949, Posner won an open exhibition to study modern languages at Somerville College, Oxford.[3][4] She specialised in French and comparative linguistics.[4] She graduated with a first class honours Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree:[5] as per tradition, her BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Oxon) degree.[2] She then undertook a postgraduate diploma in comparative philology, for which she was awarded a distinction.[4] She continued her studies at Somerville towards a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree under the supervision of Alfred Ewert[4] and completed her DPhil in 1958.[5] Her thesis was titled "Consonantal dissimilation in the Romance languages".[6]

Academic career

Having completed her doctorate, Posner spent time at the Institut de Phonétique in Paris and was a post-doctoral fellow at Yale University in the United States.[4] While in the United States, she came under the influence of Yakov Malkiel, the American-Russian etymologist.[7] In 1960, she was elected a Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge, then an all-girls college of the University of Cambridge.[8] In 1963, she moved to Ghana, where she had been appointed Professor of French and Head of Modern Languages at the University of Ghana.[8] She had wanted to study West African languages for her doctorate, so this appointment allowed her study these languages, and she also to develop an interest in creolization.[7]

In 1965, Posner returned to England and joined the University of York as a senior lecturer.[8] She was later promoted to Reader in Language.[9] During this time, she spent a sabbatical year in the United States as a visiting professor of romance philology at Columbia University, New York (1971–1972).[2][8]

From 1978 to 1996, Posner was Professor of the Romance Languages at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford. Following her retirement she became professor emeritus of Oxford and an honorary fellow of St Hugh's College.[2]

She served as president of the Philological Society from 1996 to 2000, and served as vice-president from 2000 until her death.[2] She was the recipient of a festschrift volume edited by two of her former colleagues, John Green and Wendy Ayres-Bennett: Variation and Change in French: essays presented to Rebecca Posner on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday (London, Routledge, 1990).

Personal life

In 1953, Rebecca, then Reynolds, married economist Michael Posner (died in 2006). Together they had two children: a son, Christopher, and a daughter, Barbara.[5][9]

Selected works

  • Posner, Rebecca (1961). Consonantal Dissimilation in the Romance Languages. The Philological Society. ISBN 978-0631062608.
  • Posner, Rebecca (1996). The Romance Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521236546.[10]
  • Posner, Rebecca (1997). Linguistic Change in French. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0198240365.

References

  1. ^ "Rebecca Posner". Philological Society. 28 July 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Posner, Prof. Rebecca, (17 Aug. 1929–19 July 2018), Professor of the Romance Languages, University of Oxford, 1978–96, then Emeritus; Fellow, St Hugh's College, Oxford, 1978–96, Hon. Fellow, 1996; Research Associate, Oxford University Centre for Linguistics and Philology, since 1996". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Green, John (8 October 2018). "Rebecca Posner obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Rebecca Posner (1929–2018)". French Studies. 73 (2): 342–345. 1 April 2019. doi:10.1093/fs/knz057.
  5. ^ a b c Rebecca Posner, former Fellow of the College, has died at 88. Published 31 July 2018 by St Hugh's College, Oxford. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  6. ^ Posner, Rebecca (1958). "Consonantal dissimilation in the Romance languages". E-Thesis Online Service. The British Library Board. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  7. ^ a b Green, John N. (September 2018). "Romance Philology - With No Regrets † Rebecca Posner (17 August 1929-19 July 2018)". Romance Philology. 72 (2): 147–166. doi:10.1484/J.RPH.5.116502. S2CID 166242702.
  8. ^ a b c d Bennett, Wendy (2019). "Rebecca Posner (17 August 1929-19 July 2018)". Language and History. 62 (1): 51–52. doi:10.1080/17597536.2019.1576452. S2CID 150650640.
  9. ^ a b "POSNER, Prof. Rebecca". Who's Who 2017. Oxford University Press. November 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  10. ^ Rebecca Posner (5 September 1996). The Romance Languages. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-28139-3.

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