Edward Klima | |
|---|---|
| Born | Edward S. Klima (1931-06-21)June 21, 1931 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | September 25, 2008(2008-09-25) (aged 77) La Jolla, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard University Dartmouth College |
| Known for | Research on the neurological bases ofAmerican Sign Language |
| Awards | APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, 1992 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Linguistics Psycholinguistics |
| Institutions | University of California, San Diego Salk Institute |
Edward S. Klima (June 21, 1931 – September 25, 2008) was an Americanlinguist who specialized in the study ofsign languages. Klima's work was heavily influenced byNoam Chomsky's then-revolutionary theory of the biological basis of linguistics, and applied that analysis tosign languages.[1]
Klima, much of whose work was in collaboration with his wife,Ursula Bellugi, was among the first to prove that sign languages are complete languages and have complex grammars that have all the features of grammars of oral languages.[1] Widespread recognition of this fact was one of the catalysts of the cultural changes in and towards theDeaf community in favor of encouraging the use of sign language, which had often been discouraged in favor of lip reading in the past.[2]
Klima graduated from James Ford Rhodes High School in Cleveland, Ohio in 1949. He studied linguistics atDartmouth College, earning his bachelor's degree in 1953. Two years later, he received a master's degree in the same subject fromHarvard University. Starting in 1957, Klima worked as an Instructor at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology underNoam Chomsky. After earning his Ph.D. in linguistics from Harvard University in 1965, he joined the linguistics department at theUniversity of California, San Diego. Later he also became an adjunct professor at theSalk Institute for Biological Studies, where his wife, Ursula Bellugi, was a professor, and director of the Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience (of which Klima acted as associate director).[3]
While at MIT, he supervised Jeffrey S. Gruber.[4]
