Professor Ian MacKenzie

Professor of Spanish Linguistics

Email: ian.mackenzie@ncl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 8337
Address: Room 5.31 Old Library Building
Claremont Rd,
Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RG

Office hours (Semester 2, 2019–2020):
Tuesdays 12.00 noon to 1.00 p.m.
Wednesdays 10.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m.

Background

Introduction

Ian Mackenzie was educated at Balliol College, Oxford and St John’s College, Cambridge, completing his PhD in 1994 under the supervision of Sir John Lyons. He has been professor of Spanish Linguistics at Newcastle University since 2007 and is a well-known figure in this and related disciplines. He is the author of seven books, as well as numerous articles in the fields of syntax, semantics and diachronic linguistics. He has served on various subject-related committees, including the AHRC Grants Panel and the A-Level Content Advisory Board, and has been a peer reviewer for a number of grant-awarding organizations, both in the UK and abroad. His opinion is regularly sought by publishers and he gives overseas seminars and lectures, participating, for example, in the international masters in Spanish linguistics at the Universidad de Oviedo. When not engaged in promoting his discipline, he is a keen amateur rock climber.

Professor Mackenzie specializes in Spanish and Romance linguistics, particularly syntax and language change. He is also interested in standardization and the way it impacts both language users and professional analysts of language. His theoretical approach reflects an uneasy tension between strict Chomskyan Minimalism and Milroy-style sociolinguistic scepticism.

Prospective research students are very welcome to contact him to discuss possible projects in any area relating to Spanish or the history of Spanish. Topics in French syntax will also be considered.

Link to The linguistics of Spanish

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

SML1019 Introduction to Linguistics

SPA2019 World Spanish

SPA2061 Level C Spanish General Language

SPA4007 Spanish and Romance Word Analysis

Postgraduate Teaching

SPA8017 Spanish and Romance Word Analysis

Publications

Mackenzie IE. Language Structure, Variation and Change. The Case of Old Spanish Syntax. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
Armstrong N, Mackenzie I. Speaker variables in Romance: when demography and ideology collide. In: Wendy Ayres-Bennett and Janice Carruthers, ed. Manual of Romance Sociolinguistics. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter, 2018, pp.173-196.
Mackenzie I. The Case of special qui. Journal of French Language Studies 2018, 28(1), 21-41.
Mackenzie I. The rise and fall of proclisis in Old Spanish postprepositional infinitival clauses: a quantitative approach. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2017, 94(2), 127-146.
Armstrong N, Mackenzie I. On prescriptivism and ideology. Representaciones. Revista de Estudios sobre Representación en Arte, Ciencia y Filosofía 2015, 11(2), 26-57.
Mackenzie IE. Se azotaron a los delincuentes: A Case Study in Arbitrary Exclusion. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 2013, 90(6), 917-928.
Mackenzie IE. Participle-object agreement in French and the theory of grammatical viruses. Journal of Romance Studies 2013, 13(1), 19-33.
Armstrong NR, Mackenzie IE. Standardization, Ideology and Linguistics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Mackenzie IE, van der Wurff W. Relic syntax in Middle English and Medieval Spanish: Parameter interaction in language change. Language 2012, 88(4), 846-876.
Mackenzie I. Refining the V2 Hypothesis for Old Spanish. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2010, 87(4), 379-396.
MacKenzie I. Unaccusative Verbs in Romance Languages. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
MacKenzie I. Achievement Verbs in Medieval and Modern Spanish. In: Wright, R; Ricketts, P, ed. Studies on Ibero-Romance Linguistics: Dedicated to Ralph Penny. Newark: Juan de la Cuesta, 2005, pp.375-390.
Mackenzie I. Edward Sapir in current linguistics. Lines of continuity in the history of linguistics. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2005, 82(3), 382-383.
Mackenzie I. Palenque, Cartagena and the Afro-Caribbean: history and language. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2005, 82(1), 105-106.
Bradley PT, MacKenzie I. Spanish: an Essential Grammar. London: Routledge, 2004.
MacKenzie I. Speech and its constituents: Studies in generative syntax [Book review]. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2004, 81(2), 242-243.
MacKenzie I. Bare Nouns in Spanish. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 2003, 80(1), 1-12.
Mackenzie I. The impact of English on Puerto Rican Spanish: A comparative analysis. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2003, 80(4), 574.
MacKenzie I. The Spanish subjunctive: The philosophical dimension. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2002, 79(1), 1-13.
MacKenzie I. A Linguistic Introduction to Spanish. Munich: Lincom Europa, 2001.
MacKenzie I. Basic functional syntax of Spanish: Strata, properties and operations. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2000, 77(4), 631-632.
Mackenzie IE. English grammar for students of Spanish. Modern Language Review 2000, 95(4), 1097-1098.
MacKenzie I. Marginal codification in Spanish. Hispanic Research Journal 2000, 1(3), 215-227.
MacKenzie IE. Semantics of Spanish Verbal Categories. Bern; New York: Peter Lang, 1999.
MacKenzie I. Introduction to linguistic philosophy. Thousand Oaks, California, USA: Sage Publications, Inc, 1997.
MacKenzie I. Dialectal variation in the verbal categories of Peruvian Spanish. Swindon: Economic & Social Research Council, 1996.
MacKenzie I (contributor). Diccionario Oxford Avanzado para Estudiantes de Inglés. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
MacKenzie I. The supposed imperfectivity of the Latin American perfect. Hispanic Linguistics 1995, 6/7, 29-60.
MacKenzie I. Evidence from Spanish against Russell's theory of descriptions. Newcastle & Durham Working Papers in Linguistics 1994, 2, 99-110.
MacKenzie I. The role of aspect in the temporal interpretation of Spanish discourse. Journal of Hispanic Research 1994, 3, 31-43.