Ray Jackendoff
Ray Jackendoff is a linguist whose work spans meaning, grammar and the mental processing of music. After a mathematics degree at Swarthmore College, he studies under Noam Chomsky at MIT and earns a linguistics PhD in 1969. His books include Consciousness and the Computational Mind (1987), A Generative Theory of Tonal Music with Fred Lerdahl (1983), and Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution (2002). In 2014 he wins the Rumelhart Prize, a cognitive science award, and he becomes the first theoretical linguist to win it. As of October 2026, he is Seth Merrin Professor Emeritus at Tufts and a research affiliate at MIT.
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Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.
Timeline
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1969
A linguistics PhD at MIT
After a mathematics degree at Swarthmore College, he studies under Noam Chomsky at MIT and earns a linguistics PhD in 1969.
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1971–2005
A linguistics chair at Brandeis
He is professor of linguistics and chair of the linguistics program at Brandeis from 1971 to 2005, and he then moves to Tufts.
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1983
A generative theory of tonal music
With Fred Lerdahl, he publishes A Generative Theory of Tonal Music in 1983, a book on how music processing works in the mind.
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1987
Consciousness and the computational mind
His book Consciousness and the Computational Mind appears in 1987 from MIT Press.
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2002
Foundations of language
His book Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution appears in 2002 from Oxford University Press.
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2003
The Jean Nicod Prize
He is awarded the Jean Nicod Prize in cognitive philosophy in 2003.
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2014
The David E. Rumelhart Prize
He wins the 2014 David E. Rumelhart Prize, a cognitive science award presented at the Cognitive Science Society meeting, and he becomes the first theoretical linguist to win it.
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As of October 2026
Emeritus at Tufts, affiliated with MIT
He is Seth Merrin Professor Emeritus at Tufts and a research affiliate in MIT's Brain and Cognitive Sciences department.
Sources and credits
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