Age, Biography and Wiki

Derek Bickerton was born on 25 March, 1926 in Cheshire, England, is an American linguist. Discover Derek Bickerton's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 92 years old?

Popular As N/A
Occupation N/A
Age 92 years old
Zodiac Sign Aries
Born 25 March 1926
Birthday 25 March
Birthplace Cheshire, England
Date of death 2018
Died Place N/A
Nationality United States

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 25 March. He is a member of famous with the age 92 years old group.

Derek Bickerton Height, Weight & Measurements

At 92 years old, Derek Bickerton height not available right now. We will update Derek Bickerton's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
Height Not Available
Weight Not Available
Body Measurements Not Available
Eye Color Not Available
Hair Color Not Available

Dating & Relationship status

He is currently single. He is not dating anyone. We don't have much information about He's past relationship and any previous engaged. According to our Database, He has no children.

Family
Parents Not Available
Wife Not Available
Sibling Not Available
Children Not Available

Derek Bickerton Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Derek Bickerton worth at the age of 92 years old? Derek Bickerton’s income source is mostly from being a successful . He is from United States. We have estimated Derek Bickerton's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income

Derek Bickerton Social Network

Instagram
Linkedin
Twitter
Facebook
Wikipedia
Imdb

Timeline

1926

Derek Bickerton (March 25, 1926 – March 5, 2018) was an English-born linguist and professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Based on his work in creole languages in Guyana and Hawaii, he has proposed that the features of creole languages provide powerful insights into the development of language both by individuals and as a feature of the human species.

He is the originator and main proponent of the language bioprogram hypothesis according to which the similarity of creoles is due to their being formed from a prior pidgin by children who all share a universal human innate grammar capacity.

Bickerton also wrote several novels.

His novels have been featured in the works of the Sun Ra Revival Post Krautrock Archestra, through spoken word and musical themes.

Bickerton was born in Cheshire in 1926.

1949

A graduate of the University of Cambridge, England in 1949, Derek Bickerton entered academic life in the 1960s, first as a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and then, after a year's postgraduate work in linguistics at the University of Leeds, as senior lecturer in linguistics at the University of Guyana (1967–71).

1970

To answer questions about creole formation, in the late 1970s Bickerton proposed an experiment that involves marooning on an island six couples speaking six different languages, along with children too young to have acquired their parents’ languages.

The National Science Foundation deemed the proposed experiment unethical and refused to fund it.

1972

For twenty-four years he was Associate Professor and Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (1972–96), having meanwhile received a PhD in linguistics in 1976 from the University of Cambridge.

He is the father of contemporary artist Ashley Bickerton.

His other children are Julie Bickerton Bravata and Jim Bickerton.

1981

In his book Roots of Language (1981), Bickerton poses three questions:

1) How did creole languages originate? 2) How do children acquire language?

3) How did the language faculty originate as a feature of the human species?

1990

In Language and Species (1990), he suggests that all three questions might be answered by postulating that the origin of language can be traced to the evolution of representation systems and symbolic thinking, together with a later development of formal syntax.

Using primitive communication faculties, which then evolved in parallel, mental models became shared representations subject to cultural evolution.

2000

In Lingua ex Machina (2000), he and William Calvin revise this speculative theory by considering the biological foundations of symbolic representation and their influence on the evolution of the brain.

2008

In his memoir Bastard Tongues (2008), he describes himself as a "street linguist" who emphasizes field work, with a "total lack of respect for the respectable", and he outlines his theories for a general audience.

2009

In Adam’s Tongue (2009), he makes an argument about the origin of language which relies on niche construction to supply the required evolutionary catalyst.

He claims that human language is not on a continuum with animal communication systems (ACSs) but is a qualitatively different communicative system.

Animal communication systems are only indexical, restricted to conveying information about immediate circumstances insofar as these impinge upon individual survival, reproduction, and social relations.

Human language, on the other hand, is capable of spatial and temporal displacement.

Bickerton argues that peculiar features characterizing the ecological niche of early man allowed for this breakthrough from an ACS into language.

He cites the fact that around two million years ago our ancestors were finding their way to the top of a scavenging pyramid, accessing the carcasses of megafauna before other predators and holding them off by working in coordinated groups.

By imitating an animal, like a mammoth, one member could attempt to communicate information about such food sources.

Although such imitative signaling retained an iconic character rather than fully symbolic, they involved an act of displacement in communication since the body could be miles away and discovered hours earlier.

Over time, the sounds signifying something like a mammoth would be decontextualized and come to resemble something much more closely resembling a word.

Displacement, Bickerton claims, is the hallmark feature of language.

In Bickerton's view, these words allowed the formation of concepts rather than mere categories that animals are also capable of.

Words began as the anchors for sensory information and memories about a specific animal or object.

Once the brain had words it could create concepts which came together as a 'protolanguage'.

The protolanguage remained much like a pidgin for a million years or more, eventually it went from the "beads-on-a-string" model of speech to a hierarchical structure through Merge.

2018

Bickerton died in March 2018 at the age of 91.