Gary B. Holland
Associate Professor

Indo-European linguistics, historical linguistics, history of linguistics, language typology
Ph.D. Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley, M.A. French, Florida State University, B.A. French, Florida State University

Group: Language & Historical Context

Contact information

Email: gholland@berkeley.edu

Personal statement

Ph.D., Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley, 1980. Before joining Berkeley's Department of Linguistics, he taught as a Lecturer in Scandinavian Studies and in Near Eastern Studies. His research interests fall into three main areas: comparative Indo-European linguistics (especially syntax and poetics), general historical linguistics, and language typology. His metrical restoration and edition of the Rigveda (co-authored with Barend van Nooten) appeared in 1994. In addition to working on some questions raised by the Rigveda edition he is currently completing two monographs, one on word order change and the other on relative constructions in the early Indo-European languages.

Selected publications

The Tale of Zalpa: Myth, Morality, and Coherence in a Hittite Narrative. With Marina Zorman. Studia Mediterranea, Series Hethaea, Vol. 5, 2007.

Review of Benjamin W. Fortson IV, Indo-European Language and Culture: an introduction.  Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2007.

"Kennings, metaphors, and semantic formulae in Old Norse dróttkvætt". Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi 118, 123-147, 2005.

"Syntactic Reconstruction". The International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, 2nd edition, ed. William Frawley, Vol. 3, 448-450. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

"Relativization and Word Order in Old Irish and Vedic Sanskrit". Journal of Indo-European Studies 24, 323-331, 1996.

"Irish Poetry and Norse Dróttkvætt". With John Lindow. A Celtic Florilegium: Studies in Memory of Brendan O Hehir, eds. Kathryn A. Klar, Eve E. Sweetser, and Claire Thomas, 54-62, 1996.

Rig Veda: A Metrically Restored Text with an Introduction and Notes. With B. A. van Nooten. Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. 50, 1994.

"The Name of Achilles: A Revised Etymology" Glotta LXXI, 17-27, 1993.

"Transitivity, Causativity, and Surface Case in Old Norse". Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi 108, 19-37, 1993.