Victor Yngve
Also known as Victor Huse Yngve, Victor H. Yngve, Vic Yngve
Victor Yngve was a computational linguist whose work connected computers with language research. He completed a University of Chicago doctoral thesis in 1953, directed MIT's Mechanical Translation Research Project, and developed COMIT for machine translation. His 1960 depth hypothesis described limits on sentence structure, and a 1970 paper introduced the term back-channel behavior. He published two books on language science, co-edited Hard-Science Linguistics, and died in 2012 at age 91.
Timeline
-
1953
Cosmic-ray thesis at Chicago
In 1953, he completes a University of Chicago doctoral thesis, The Time Variation of Cosmic-Ray Heavy Nuclei, under advisor Marcel Schein.
-
1953–1965
MIT machine-translation project
He joins MIT in 1953 and directs the Mechanical Translation Research Project through 1965. His grants support linguists including Jim McCawley and Ed Klima.
-
1957–1965
COMIT for machine translation
From 1957 to 1965, he and MIT collaborators develop COMIT on IBM 700/7000 computers to support machine-translation research. The first string-processing language, COMIT leads to SNOBOL. In July 1958, Yngve publishes “A programming language for mechanical translation” in Mechanical Translation.
-
1960
A limit on sentence depth
In his 1960 paper “A model and a hypothesis for language structure,” Yngve identifies an English grammar asymmetry that favors right-branching over left-branching structures. The depth hypothesis holds that the depth of any word in a sentence never exceeds a fixed limit, perhaps seven.
-
1970
Back-channel behavior
In his 1970 paper “On Getting a Word in Edgewise,” he coins the term “back channel behavior” for a conversational phenomenon known in linguistics as back-channeling.
-
1986–1998
Books on language science
He publishes Linguistics as a Science in 1986 and From Grammar to Science in 1998, and develops an approach to language science modeled directly on physics.
-
2004
Editing Hard-Science Linguistics
In 2004, he and Zdzislaw Wasik edit Hard-Science Linguistics, a detailed report on the hard-science foundation for linguistics that Yngve lays out in 1996. His University of Chicago career includes a professorship in the Department of Linguistics and Psychology and chairmanships of the Committee on Information Sciences and the Institute for Computer Research.
-
2012
Death at age 91
He dies in January 2012 at age 91. W. John Hutchins writes his obituary for Computational Linguistics in 2012.
Career
- 1953–1965Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyDirector of the Mechanical Translation Research Project
- University of ChicagoProfessor in the Department of Linguistics and Psychology
Education
- 1953University of ChicagoDoctoral study
Colleagues
Sources and credits
Photo: We have no published photo of Victor Yngve yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.