MIT Linguistics mourns the passing of our colleague Jim Harris, well-known to generations of MIT students over three decades for his wisdom and insight into the morphology, phonology, and syntax of Spanish (and Catalan) — and thus into language itself. Sad news for the field and for our community. His long-time colleague Jay Keyser writes of his work —
I remember Jim most of all for being the consummate scholar. His articles were models of argumentation. They were assembled with all the precision of an Inca wall and all the beauty of a Faberge Egg. You couldn’t slip a credit card through any of its arguments, they were so superbly sculpted.
— part of a moving tribute that you can read here: https://linguistics.mit.edu/jharris/
MIT News describes his life and career as both a researcher and a passionate advocate for the Spanish language at MIT here: https://news.mit.edu/2024/professor-emeritus-james-harris-dies-1125. Our deep condolences to his daughter Lynn and her family on their loss — their loss and ours.
