JEFFREY P. KAPLAN
Professor of Linguistics
11360 Meadow View Rd.
San Diego State University
El Cajon, CA 92020
Department of Linguistics
(619) 579-1190
& Asian/Middle Eastern Languages
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182
(619) 594-5879
E-mail: jkaplan@mail.sdsu.edu
Fax: (619) 594-4877
Research interests: English grammar, functional syntax,
semantics, pragmatics; application of these areas in legal contexts.
EDUCATION:
1994 University of San Diego.
J.D.
Law
1976 University of
Pennsylvania Ph.D.
Linguistics
1971 University of
Pennsylvania M.A.
Linguistics
1965 University of
Chicago
A.B. Linguistics
1987 Linguistic Institute
(Linguistic Society of America), Stanford University
1983 Linguistic Institute
(Linguistic Society of America), UCLA
1981 NEH Summer Seminar for
College Teachers, University of Massachusetts (Topic: Formal
semantics; Barbara Partee and Emmon
Bach,
co-directors)
1977 NEH Summer Seminar for
College Teachers, University of New Mexico (Topic: Bilingualism;
Bernard Spolsky, director)
1971 Linguistic Institute
(Linguistic Society of America), SUNY-Buffalo
TEACHING:
1981 - date: Department of Linguistics &
Asian/Middle Eastern Languages, San Diego State University.
Tenured 1984, promoted to full professor 1996. 2002-date:
department chair.
1979-1981: Assistant Professor, English
Department, Northeastern University, Boston, MA.
1976-1979: Lecturer, Linguistics Department,
San Diego State University.
1976:
Visiting Assistant Professor, English Department, University of Arizona.
1974-1975: Lecturer, Program in Linguistics,
University of Melbourne (Australia).
1973-1974: Visiting Instructor, English
Department, University of Arizona.
TEACHING AWARDS:
1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001: Most influential
faculty member, chosen by Linguistics Department Outstanding Graduating
Student.
BRIEFS AMICUS CURIAE:
2008. Charles M. Dyke, counsel of record. With Dennis E. Baron
and Richard W. Bailey. D.C. v. Heller, No. 07-290. Supreme Court
of the United States. "Brief for professors of linguistics and
English in support of petitioners."
2008. Neal Goldfarb, counsel of record. With Edward Gibson,
Georgia M. Green, Ray Jackendoff, and Roger W. Shuy. U.S. v.
Hayes, No. 7-608. Supreme Court of the United States.
"Brief of professors of linguistics and cognitive science as Amici
Curiae in support of neither party."
PUBLICATIONS:
2007. With Betty J. Birner & Gregory Ward. Functional
compositionality and the interaction of discourse constraints. Language
83 (2).317-343.
2007. With Gregory Ward & Betty J. Birner. Epistemic would, open propositions, and
truncated clefts, in Topics on the Grammar-Pragmatics Interface: Papers
in Honor of Jeanette K. Gundel, edited by Nancy Hedberg and Ron
Zacharski. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. 77-90.
2004 With Betty J. Birner. Scalar nominals in
English. Papers from the 38th regional meeting, Chicago
Linguistic Society. Edited by Mary Andronis, Erin Debenport, Anne Pycha
& Keiko Yoshimura. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, p. 91-102.
2003 With Betty J. Birner and Gregory
Ward. A pragmatic analysis of the epistemic would construction in
English. In Facchineti, R., M. Krug, & F. Palmer, eds.,
Modality in contemporary English. Mouton de Gruyter, p. 71-80.
1998 Pragmatic contributions to the interpretation of
a will. Forensic Linguistics 5.107-126..
1995 With Georgia M. Green. Grammar and
inferences of rationality in interpreting the child pornography
statute. Washington University Law Quarterly 73.1223-1251.
1995. With Georgia M. Green, Clark D. Cunningham, and Judith N.
Levi. Bringing linguistics into judicial
decisionmaking: semantic analysis submitted to the U.S. Supreme
Court. Forensic Linguistics 2.81-98.
1995 English Grammar: Principles and
Facts. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 2e.
1994 With Clark D. Cunningham, Judith N. Levi, and
Georgia M. Green. Plain meaning and hard cases. Yale Law
Journal 103.1561-1625.
This
review article reported on application of linguistic analysis to three
cases under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1993
term. The article was sent, in galley form, to the Court in late
November, 1993, before oral argument. In one of the cases, the
article was cited in the majority opinion (U.S. v. Granderson, 114 S.
Ct. 1259, 1267 n. 7 (1994)). In another, the article was cited in
the concurrence (U.S. v. Staples, 62 USLW 4379, 4386 (1994) (Ginsburg,
J., concurring with O'Connor, J.)).
1994 Review of Levi, Judith N., & Anne Graffam
Walker, eds., Language in the judicial process, Forensic Linguistics
1.94-106.
1994 Review of Baldwin, J., & P. French, Forensic
Phonetics, International criminal justice review 4.91-93.
1993 Syntax in the interpretation of legal language:
the vested vs. contingent distinction in property law," American Speech
68.58-82.
1989 English grammar: principles and
facts. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
1988 Small clauses and the projection principle.
Proceedings of the 14th Annual Meeting, Berkeley Linguistics Society,
ed., by S. Axmaker, A. Jaisser, and H. Singmaster (Berkeley:
Berkeley Linguistics Society) 78-87.
1986 Review of Celce-Murcia, M. & D.
Larsen-Freeman, The grammar book. CATESOL News.
1985 VP anaphor choice in discourse.
Beyond the sentence: discourse and sentential form, ed. by J.R.
Wirth. Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers.
1984 Obligatory too
in English. Language 60.510-518.
1984 With Michael A. Shand. Error detection as
a function of integrativity. Universals of second language
acquisition, ed. by F.R. Eckman, L.H. Bell, and D. Nelson.
Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
1980 Non-transformational grammar for non-linguists.
Linguistics and the university education, ed. by G. Hudson. East
Lansing: Michigan State University.
1976 The variability of phrasal anaphoric
islands. Papers from the 12th Regional Meeting, Chicago
Linguistics Society, ed. by S. Mufwene, C. Walker, and S. Steever.
Chicago: Chicago Linguistics Society, 337-350.
1976 The anaphoric bond. Melbourne
University working papers in linguistics, ed. by R. Zatorski and E.
Pearce. Melbourne: Melbourne University.
1972 Review of Patricia L. Carrell, A
transformational grammar of Igbo. American Anthropologist 74.
ORAL PRESENTATIONS:
2007 A partial answer to a question about
Miranda. International Association
of Forensic Linguists,
8th Biennial Conference on Forensic Linguistics/Language and Law,
12-15 July,
University of Washington.
2006 A linguistic look at the Miranda
“warning”. Invited talk, Interpreter Services, U.S. District
Court, Southern District of CA, Nov. 20.
2004 Speech acts in custodial interrogation:
how linguists can help courts even if language is 'plain.'
Invited talk, Northern Illinois University, October 10.
2004 The perils of being a linguistic tour
guide: teaching linguistics to lawyers, judges, and juries.
UCSD Dept. of Linguistics lecture series on Interdisciplinary
Approaches to Linguistics. May 24.
2004 With Betty J. Birner & Gregory Ward.
Epistemic would, clefts, and functional compositionality. Eighth
Annual Meeting, Texas Linguistic Society, Austin, TX, 3/5.
2003 With Kyle Thompson. Absolutes and second
amendment interpretation. Annual meeting, Linguistic Society of
America. Atlanta, GA, Jan. 3.
2003 With Betty J. Birner & Gregory Ward.
Epistemic modals and temporal reference. Annual meeting, Linguistic
Society of America. Atlanta, GA, Jan. 3.
2002 With Betty J. Birner. Implicature and
scalar nominals. Thirty-eighth annual meeting, Chicago Linguistic
Society. April 26. Poster.
2001 With Betty J. Birner &
Gregory Ward:
Pragmatics of epistemic would. Philadelphia
Semantics Society.
A pragmatic analysis of the epistemic would
construction in English. International conference on
modality in contemporary English, University of Verona, Italy.
Epistemic must and would: a pragmatic
differentiation. Twenty-sixth annual linguistics colloquium, San
Diego State University.
Referential ambiguity in the ‘that would be X’ construction.
Midwest conference on film, language, and literature, Northern Illinois
University, DeKalb, IL.
Open propositions and epistemic would.
Annual meeting, Linguistic Society of America. Washington, D.C.
2000 Recent applications of
linguistics to law. San Diego State University Linguistics
Department ‘Brown Bag’ Series.
1997 Linguistic contributions to the interpretation
of a disputed will. Third annual conference, International
Association of Forensic Linguists. Duke University. Also
presented at San Diego State University Linguistics Colloquium.
1997 With Judith N. Levi. Understandings of
"meaning" in linguistics and law. Annual meeting, Law &
Society Association, St. Louis.
1994 Invited participant, Northwestern University /
Washington University Colloquium, "What is meaning in a legal
text." Edited transcript of panel discussions published in
Washington University Law Quarterly 73 (1995).
1994 Discussant, Panel, Linguistic analysis of
Supreme Court cases, Annual Meeting, Law and Society Association,
Phoenix, AZ.
1994 Lexical semantics meets the
Enterprise. San Diego State University Linguistics
Colloquium.
1992 Discussant, Panel, The adequacy of the language
of death penalty instructions. Annual Meeting, Law &
Society Association.
1992 Out-of-court speech vs. legislation: does
QUANTITY apply? Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting.
1991 Pragmatics and the law of evidence: adoptive
admissions and legislation. South Atlantic Regional
Meeting, American Dialect Society, Atlanta.
1991 The legal interpretation of silence: the
role of pragmatics. San Diego State University Linguistics
Colloquium.
1990 Syntax and property law: the 'vested' vs.
'contingent' distinction and a syntactic explanation for it.
Northwestern University Linguistics Colloquium.
Also presented at San Diego State University Linguistics Colloquium.
1988 Small clauses and the projection
principle. 14th Annual Meeting, Berkeley Linguistics Society.
1987 Small clauses in English. San Diego
State University Linguistics Colloquium.
1984 Sentential subjects and extraposition. San
Diego State University Linguistics Colloquium.
1982 Obligatory too in English.
Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting.
1981 With Michael A. Shand. Error detection as
a function of integrativity. 11th Annual University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee Linguistics Symposium.
1981 Aspects of the grammar and semantics of
too. NEH Summer Seminar for College Teachers, Amherst, MA.
1981 Recent findings about English VP
anaphora. San Jose State University and Univesity of
Tennessee.
1980 Non-transformational grammar for
non-linguists. Michigan State University Symposium:
Linguistics and the University Education. East Lansing, MI.
1980 VP anaphor choice in discourse. 9th Annual
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Linguistics Symposium.
Milwaukee, WI.
1979 Some issues in the formal grammar of
Spanish-English code-switching. Georgetown University Roundtable
on Languages and Linguistics.
1978 With Nancy S. Levin. Say something
new: a constraint on VP deletion. Linguistic Society of
America Annual Meeting.
1978 A semantic theory of inverted so.
Linguistic Society of America Summer Meeting.
1976 The variability of phrasal anaphoric
islands. Chicago Linguistic Society.
1974 Aspects of the theory of aspect.
University of Arizona Linguistics Club.
1973 The interative aspect in English.
Linguistic Society of America Summer Meeting.
LEGAL CONSULTING:
Fall/Winter 2006 Barger & Wolen. Linguistic
analysis of insurance policy.
Fall 2006 Hill & Robbins,
P.C. Linguistic analysis of insurance notification form.
Summer/Fall 2006 Law Offices of James S.
Marinos. Linguistic analysis of bank disclosure agreement.
Deposition.
Fall/Winter 2004 Evans,
Latham, & Campisi. Linguistic analyses of trust.
Spring 2004 Barry D. Edwards,
Honolulu, HI. Linguistic analysis of surreptitiously recorded
telephone conversations in criminal case. Trial testimony.
Fall 2003 Public Defender of San
Bernardino County, CA. Linguistic analysis of custodial
interrogation. Testimony in hearing on admissibility of evidence.
Winter 2001 Loeb & Loeb.
Linguistic analysis of lease contracts.
Spring 2001 Evans, Latham, &
Campisi. Linguistic analyses of will, codicil, and trusts.
Summer 2000 Gibbs &
Fuerst. Linguistic analysis of possibly defamatory utterances.
Summer 2000 Thorsnes, Bartolotta,
& McGuire. Linguistic analyses of loan documents.
Deposition.
Spring 2000 Finkelstein &
Krinsk. Linguistic analysis of loan documents.
Fall 1999 Thorsnes, Bartolotta,
McGuire & Padilla. Linguistic analyses of mortgage
documents. Deposition.
Winter 1997 Evans, Latham, Harris &
Campisi. Linguistic analysis of holographic will.
Deposition; courtroom testimony.
Spring 1993 With Clark D.
Cunningham, Judith N. Levi, Georgia M. Green, and Lawrence Solan:
Brief Amicus Curiae of the Law and Linguistics Consortium, U.S. v.
X-Citement Video, Inc., 115 S. Ct 464 (1994).
Spring 1993 Thorsnes, Bartolotta,
McGuire & Padilla. Syntactic, semantic, discourse analysis of
insurance company documents.
Spring 1990 Thorsnes, Bartolotta,
McGuire & Padilla. Syntactic, semantic, discourse analysis of
insurance company documents.
Fall 1985 Defenders Program of San
Diego, Inc. Discourse analysis of tapes of recorded conversations.
Winter 1983-1984 With Pamela Downing: Fletcher
& Patton. Syntactic, semantic, discourse analysis of tapes of
recorded conversations.
SERVICE:
University (San Diego State University):
1986 - 1990 University General Education Committee
1984
University Curriculum Committee
College of Arts & Letters, San Diego State University:
1997 - 1999 Personnel Committee
1987 - 1989 Research and Professional Leaves
Committee (Chair, 1988-9)
1982 - 1984 Academic Planning Committee (Chair,
1983-4)
Department of Linguistics, San Diego State University:
2002 – date Chair
2001 - 2002 Associate chair
1999 - 2002 Chair, Computational linguistics search
committee
1991 - 2001 Chair, Departmental curriculum committee
1983 - 2001 Undergraduate adviser and certificate
adviser
1981 - 1984 Adviser, Linguistics Students Association
Community:
Various Reviewer for Language, Law & Society
Review, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Forensic Linguistics,
Journal of Mathematics Education, various publishers.
Various Grant proposal reviewer, National Science
Foundation.
2007 Op-ed article, The language gives
us no such right. San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 2.
(http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071123/news_lz1e23kaplan.html)
2005 National Science
Foundation: revewer of graduate research fellowships
2003 Lemon Grove, CA Rotary Club,
invited speaker, 9/8/03.
2002, 2003 Reviewer of abstracts, Semantics and
Linguistic Theory (SALT) Conference.
1997 Op-ed article, Ebonics could
help black youths cope. San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 2.
1995 Op-ed article, Flag-burning
ban: protecting what it symbolizes or the symbol? San Diego
Union-Tribune, Dec. 14, 1999.
Reprinted in Censorship: opposing
viewpoints, ed. by B. Stay. San Diego: Greenhaven Press
(1997).
Excerpt placed on panel in large
sculpture “12151791” designed by Amy Larimer and Peter Bernheim on
display at the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, Chicago.
1987 Curriculum consultant, State
Department of Education.
1995 – date North American Representative,
International Association of Forensic Linguists.
1999 – date Member, Editorial Board, Forensic
Linguistics.