Professor Mick Perkins BA, MA, PhD.
Department of Human Communication Sciences
The University of Sheffield
31 Claremont Crescent
Sheffield
S10 2TA
UK
Tel: +44 (0) 114 222 2408
Fax: +44 (0) 114 273 0547
email : m.perkins@sheffield.ac.uk
Biography
After earlier careers in English language teaching in North Africa and construction work in the USA, I moved into academic linguistics via a PhD on the semantics of modality followed by 10 years as a lecturer and senior lecturer in linguistics at Leeds Polytechnic. I joined the department at Sheffield in 1990 and was awarded a personal chair in clinical linguistics in 2003. I´m now an emeritus professor, having taken early retirement in 2009 which allows me to devote more time to research and indulge my interest in less mainstream approaches to linguistics and language breakdown.
I have published numerous articles in areas such as clinical linguistics, pragmatics, semantics and language development, and several books including: Modal Expressions in English. (1983, Ablex/Pinter), Case Studies in Clinical Linguistics (1995 Whurr/ Wiley), New Directions in Language Development and Disorders (2000, Kluwer), Pragmatic Impairment (2007, Cambridge) and The Handbook of Clinical Linguistics (2008 Wiley/Blackwell).
Professional activities
I´ve had a wide range of professional roles during my career, some recent and current ones being:
- Vice President of the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) 2000-2006
- Member/Deputy Chair of the UK RAE panel for Linguistics in 2001/2008
- Editorial board of Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics and Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders.
Research interests
The main focus of my research throughout my academic career has been the relationship between semantics, pragmatics and cognition in human communication. An earlier interest in the semantics and pragmatics of modality has been followed more recently by work on:
- Development of an emergentist theory of pragmatic ability and disability
- Pragmatic disability in children and adults
- Compensatory adaptation in impaired communication
In my clinical linguistic research I´ve focused in particular on the communication of individuals with autism, developmental language disorders, traumatic brain injury, Williams syndrome and aphasia.
Current projects
- Alternatives to cognitivism: emergentist and dialogical explanations of communication breakdown
- The historiography and social psychology of clinical linguistics and language study
- Gesture use in SLI
Collaborators
- Previous and current PhD students include: Richard Body, Chloë Bate, Sarah Bryan, Abebayehu Mekonnen, Dariel Merrills, Tom Muskett, Habibeh Samadi, Hannah Sowden and Vesna Stojanovik.
Key publications
- Perkins, M. R. (2007) Pragmatic Impairment . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Ball, M., Perkins, M. R., Müller, N. and Howard, S. (Eds.) (2008) The Handbook of Clinical Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell
- Perkins, M. R., Dobbinson, S., Boucher, J., Bol, S. and Bloom, P. (2006) Lexical Knowledge and Lexical Use in Autism. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders 36: 795-805
- Perkins, M. (2006) Clinical Pragmatics. In Verschueren, J., Östman, J.-O., Blommaert, J. and Bulcaen, C. Handbook of Pragmatics – 2006 Installment. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.1-29
- Perkins, M. R. (1983) Modal Expressions in English. London: Frances Pinter & Norwood, NJ: Ablex