Staff Profile

Introduction

Ian Mackenzie was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and St John's College, Cambridge, where he completed his PhD in 1994 under the supervision of Sir John Lyons. Since 2007, he has held the position of Professor of Spanish Linguistics at Newcastle University, becoming a prominent figure in Spanish and Romance linguistics. He is the author of seven books and numerous articles on syntax, semantics and diachronic linguistics, with his work widely recognized for its depth and rigour. In addition to his research contributions, he has served on several influential committees, including the AHRC Grants Panel and the A-Level Content Advisory Board, and acts as a peer reviewer for leading grant-awarding organizations both in the UK and internationally. His expertise is regularly sought by academic publishers, and he is an active participant in the global scholarly community, delivering seminars and lectures abroad, such as in the international master's programme in Spanish linguistics at the Universidad de Oviedo. Outside of academia, he is a keen amateur rock climber.

Professor Mackenzie's research focuses primarily on Spanish and Romance linguistics, with a particular emphasis on syntax and language change. His interests extend to language standardization and its implications for both language users and linguistic analysis. His theoretical work navigates a complex balance between Chomskyan Minimalism and the sociolinguistic skepticism of Milroy, reflecting his thoughtful approach to linguistic theory.

He welcomes enquiries from prospective research students interested in pursuing projects related to any aspect of Spanish linguistics or the history of the Spanish language. He is also open to supervising topics in French syntax.

Link to The linguistics of Spanish

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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Report

  • MacKenzie I. Dialectal variation in the verbal categories of Peruvian Spanish. Swindon: Economic & Social Research Council, 1996.

• 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.