Origins & Early Life

John Robert "Haj" Ross (May 7, 1938 – May 13, 2025) was an American poet and linguist. He played a part in the development of generative semantics along with George Lakoff, James D. McCawley, and Paul Postal. He was a professor of linguistics at MIT from 1966 to 1985 and worked in Brazil, Singapore and British Columbia.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Until spring 2021, he taught at the University of North Texas. Ross's 1967 MIT dissertation is a landmark in syntactic theory and documents in great detail Ross's discovery of syntactic islands. He is known for naming concepts. He coined many new terms describing syntactic phenomena, including copula switch, gapping, heavy NP shift, myopia, the penthouse principle, pied piping, scrambling, siamese sentences, sluicing, slifting, and sloppy identity. In linguistics more generally, Ross popularized the use of the term squib to refer to a short scholarly article.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

As a student, Ross was exposed to many influential figures within the field. Ross was a student of Bernard Bloch, Samuel Martin and Rulon Wells at Yale University; Zellig Harris, Henry Hiz, Henry Hoenigswald and Franklin Southworth at the University of Pennsylvania; and Roman Jakobson, Noam...

Contemporary Figures & Related Historical Timelines

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• 1938 Historical Timeline & Archive — Explore world events and figures from 1938
• May 7 (05-07) On This Day — Historical birthdays and events on May 7
• 2025 Historical Timeline & Archive — Explore world events and figures from 2025
• May 13 (05-13) On This Day — Historical events and memorials on May 13