Staff Profile
Professor Ian MacKenzie
Professor of Spanish Linguistics
- Email: ian.mackenzie@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: 0191 208 8337
- Address: Room 5.31,
Old Library Building,
Claremont Rd,
Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU
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
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Articles
- Mackenzie I. The Genesis of Spanish /θ/: A Revised Model. Languages 2022, 7(3), 191.
- 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. Participle-object agreement in French and the theory of grammatical viruses. Journal of Romance Studies 2013, 13(1), 19-33.
- Mackenzie IE. Se azotaron a los delincuentes: A Case Study in Arbitrary Exclusion. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 2013, 90(6), 917-928.
- 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. Bare Nouns in Spanish. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 2003, 80(1), 1-12.
- MacKenzie I. The Spanish subjunctive: The philosophical dimension. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2002, 79(1), 1-13.
- MacKenzie I. Marginal codification in Spanish. Hispanic Research Journal 2000, 1(3), 215-227.
- MacKenzie I. The supposed imperfectivity of the Latin American perfect. Hispanic Linguistics 1995, 6/7, 29-60.
- MacKenzie I. The role of aspect in the temporal interpretation of Spanish discourse. Journal of Hispanic Research 1994, 3, 31-43.
- MacKenzie I. Evidence from Spanish against Russell's theory of descriptions. Newcastle & Durham Working Papers in Linguistics 1994, 2, 99-110.
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Authored Books
- Mackenzie IE. Language Structure, Variation and Change: The Case of Old Spanish Syntax. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
- Armstrong NR, Mackenzie IE. Standardization, Ideology and Linguistics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
- MacKenzie I. Unaccusative Verbs in Romance Languages. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
- Bradley PT, MacKenzie I. Spanish: an Essential Grammar. London: Routledge, 2004.
- MacKenzie I. A Linguistic Introduction to Spanish. Munich: Lincom Europa, 2001.
- 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 (contributor). Diccionario Oxford Avanzado para Estudiantes de Inglés. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
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Book Chapters
- 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. 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.
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Report
- MacKenzie I. Dialectal variation in the verbal categories of Peruvian Spanish. Swindon: Economic & Social Research Council, 1996.
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Reviews
- Mackenzie I. Palenque, Cartagena and the Afro-Caribbean: history and language. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2005, 82(1), 105-106.
- 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. Speech and its constituents: Studies in generative syntax [Book review]. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2004, 81(2), 242-243.
- Mackenzie I. The impact of English on Puerto Rican Spanish: A comparative analysis. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2003, 80(4), 574.
- Mackenzie IE. English grammar for students of Spanish. Modern Language Review 2000, 95(4), 1097-1098.
- MacKenzie I. Basic functional syntax of Spanish: Strata, properties and operations. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 2000, 77(4), 631-632.