All Scholars

WATKINS, Calvert Ward

  • Calvert Ward Watkins
  • Date of Birth: March 13, 1933
  • Born City: Pittsburgh
  • Born State/Country: PA
  • Parents: Ralph James, an economist and government adviser, and Willye Ward W.
  • Date of Death: March 20, 2013
  • Death City: Los Angeles
  • Death State/Country: CA
  • Married: Jane Williams Cushman, May 5, 1961; Stephanie Jamison, 1980.
  • Education:

    B.A. Harvard (summa cum laude) 1954; Ph.D. (Jr. Soc. Fellows; Linguistics) 1959; studied at École pratique des Hautes-Études, Paris, 1954-55; Dublin Inst. For Advanced Studies, 1957-8.
  • Dissertation:

    "Studies in the Indo-European Origins of the Celtic Verb. 1. The Sigmatic Aorist" (Harvard, 1959); revised and published as Indo-European Origins of the Celtic Verb: 1. The Sigmatic Aorist (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1962).
  • Professional Experience:

    Instr. Harvard, 1959; asst. prof. 1960-62; asso. prof. 1962-6; chair, dept. linguistics, 1963-6, 1969-70, 1971-72, 1985-91; prof. ling. & classics, 1966-89; Victor S. Thomas Prof. Linguistics & Classics, 1989-2003; vis. prof. School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1961-62 & 1981; fellow, Center for the Advanced Study if Behavioral Science, 1966-67; overseas fellow, Churchill College, Cambridge, 1970-71; Linguistic Society of America Collita Professor at Salzburg, 1979; vis. Prof. École normale, U. Sorbonne, 1983; Professor-in-Residence, UCLA, 2003-13; NEH fellow, 1984-85; Guggenheim fellow, 1991-2. Hon. Mem. Royal Irish Academy, 1968, fell. American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 1973; mem. American Philosophical Society, 1975; corresp. Fellow British Academy, 1987; president, Linguistic Society of America, 1988; member associe, Acad. des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1999, Goodwin Award, APA, 1998; Gaisford lecturer, classics, Oxford, 2000; pres. Linguistic Soc. Am., 1989.
  • Publications:

    "Review of Kenneth Jackson, Language and History in Early Britain: A Chronological Survey of the Britannic Languages, First to Twelfth Century A.D.," Language 30 (1954) 513-18;  P. Guiraud, Bibliographie critique de la statistique linguistique rev. & completed by D. Houchin, J. Puhvel & Watkins under the direction of J. Whatmough (Utrecht, 1954). REVS: BSL L 1954,2 44-46 Cohen; Emerita XXIV 1956 187 Tovar; "The Phonemics of Gaulish: The Dialect of Narbonensis," Language 31 (1955) 9-19; "Preliminaries to a Historical and Comparative Analysis of the Syntax of the Old Irish Verb," Celtica 6 (1963) 1-49; "Indo-European Metrics and Archaic Irish Verse," Celtica 6 (1963) 194-249; “Lat. nox, by night. A Problem in Syntactic Reconstruction,” Symbolae linguisticae in honorem J. Kuryłowicz, ed. A. Heinz (Wrocław, 1965) 351-358; “An Indo-European Construction in Greek and Latin,” HSCP 71 (1966) 115-119; J. Kuryłowicz, Indogermanische Grammatik, III, 1. Teil : Formenlehre : Geschichte der indogermanischen Verbalflexion by Watkins (Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1969) REV. Paideia XXX 1975 382-386 Pisani; WZHalle XXI 1972, 1 99-102 Barschel | DLZ XCII 1971 849-851 Sternemann | Language XLVIII 1972 687-695 Wyatt; "The Indo-European Origin of English," The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language New York: American Heritage and Houghton Mifflin, 1969) xix-xx; "Indo-European and the Indo Europeans," ibid., 1496-502; "Indo-European Roots," ibid., 1505-50; “A Latin-Hittite Etymology,” Language 45 (1969) 235-242; “A Further Remark of Lachmann's Law,” HSCP 74 (1970) 55-65; “On the Family of arceō, ἀρκέω, and Hittite h⌣ark-,” HSCP 74 (1970) 67-74; “An Indo-European Agricultural Term, Latin ador, Hittite h⌣at-,” HSCP 77 (1973) 187-194; “Etyma Enniana,” HSCP 77 (1973) 195-206; “Latin suppus,” JIES 1 (1973) 394-399; “I.-E. Star,” Sprache 20 (1974) 10-14; “God,” Antiquitates Indogermanicae. Studien zur indogermanischen Altertumskunde und zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte der indogermanischen Völker. Gedenkschrift für Hermann Guentert zur 25. Wiederkehr seines Todestages am 23. April 1973, ed. M. Mayrhofer, W. Meid, B. Schlerath & R. Schmitt (Innsbruck, 1974) 101-110; “La famille indo-européenne de grec ὄρχις. Linguistique, poétique et mythologie,” BSL 70 (1975) 11-26; “Latin ador, Hittite hat- Again. Addenda to HSCP LXXVII 187-193,” HSCP 79 (1975) 181-187; “Latin iouiste et le vocabulaire religieux indo-européen,” Mélanges offerts à E. Benveniste (Paris, 1975) 527-534; “La désignation indo-européenne du tabou,” Langue, discours, société. Pour Émile Benveniste ed. J. Kristeva, J.C. Milner, & N. Ruwet (Paris, 1975) 208-214; "Towards Proto-Indo-European Syntax: Problems and Pseudo-Problems," Chicago Linguistic Society (Parasession on diachronic syntax) 12.2 (1976) 305-26;  “Observations on the Nestor's Cup Inscription,” HSCP 80 (1976) 25-40; “Syntax and Metrics in the Dipylon Vase Inscription,” Studies in Greek, Italic, and Indo-European Linguistics Offered to Leonard R. Palmer on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday June 5, 1976, ed. Davies A. Morpurgo & W. Meid (Innsbruck, 1976) 431-441; “À propos de μῆνις,” BSL 72, 1 (1977) 187-209; “ἀνόστεος ὁν πόδα τένδει,” Étrennes de septantaine. Travaux de linguistique et de grammaire comparée offerts à Michel Lejeune (Paris, 1978) 231-235;“La désignation indo-européenne du tabou,” Langue, discours, société. Pour Émile Benveniste ed. J. Kristeva, J.C. Milner, & N. Ruwet (Paris, 1975) 208-214; “Let Us Now Praise Famous Grains,” PAPS 122 (1978) 9-17; “A Greco-Hittite Etymology,” Serta Indogermanica. Festschrift für Günter Neumann zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. J. Tischler (Innsbruck, 1982) 455-457; “The Language of the Trojans,” Troy and the Trojan War. A Symposium Held at Bryn Mawr College, October, 1984, ed. M.T. Mellink (Bryn Mawr, PA, 1986) 45-62; “The Name of Meleager,” O-o-pe-ro-si. Festschrift für Ernst Risch zum 75. Geburtstag, ed. A. Etter (Berlin, 1986) 320-328; “Questions linguistiques de poétique, de mythologie et de pré-droit en indo-européen,” LALIES 5 (1987) 3-29; “ ‘In the Interstices of Procedure.’ Indo-European Legal Language and Comparative Law,” Studien zum indogermanischen Wortschatz, ed. Wolfgang Meid (Innsbruck, 1987) 305-314; Studies in Memory of Warren Cowgill (1929-1985). Papers from the Fourth East Coast Indo-European Conference, Cornell University, June 6-9, 1986 (ed.) (Berlin & New York, 1987) REVS.: Kratylos XXXV 1990 41-48 Rix; ILing XII 1987-88 188 R. Gusmani; "New Parameters in Historical Linguistics, Philology, and Culture History," Language 65 (1989) 783-99; “Le dragon hittite Illuyankas et le géant grec Typhôeus,” CRAI (1992) 319-330; How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics (Oxford, 1995) REVS: CJ 1997-1998 92 (4): 417-422 Dunkel; JAOS 1997 117 (2): 397-398 Klein; Language 1997 73 (3): 637-641 Justus; CO 1996-1997 74 (3): 123 Klein; CW 1998-1999 92 (2): 175-176 Kelly; BSL 1998 93 (2): 116-130 Bader; Kratylos 2000 45: 36-46 Schlerath; CR 2000 N. S. 50 (1): 101-103 Konstan; EMC 2000 N. S. 19 (3): 399-406 Bubenik; IF 2001 106 : 282-290 Keydana; “Greece in Italy outside Rome,” HSCP 97 (1995) 35-50; “Homer and Hittite Revisited,” Style and Tradition: Studies in Honor of Wendell Clausen, ed. Peter E. Knox and Clive Foss (Stuttgart, 1998) 201-211; The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots (revised and ed.), 2nd ed. (Boston, 2000); “A Distant Anatolian Echo in Pindar: the Origin of the Aegis Again,” HSCP 100 (2000) 1-14; “L'Anatolie et la Grèce : résonances culturelles, linguistiques et poétiques,” CRAI (2000) 1143-1158; "À la suite des perspectives tracées par Michel Lejeune: aspects du grec et du celtique,” CRAI (2001) 213-223; "An Indo-European Linguisti Area and Its Characteristics: Ancient Anatolia. Areal Diffusion as a Challenge to the Comparative Method? in Areal Diffusion and Genetic Inheritance: Problems in Comparative Linguistics ed. Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald & R.M.W. Dixon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001) 44-63;  “The Golden Bowl: Thoughts on the New Sappho and its Asianic Background,” ClAnt 26,2 (2007) 305-325; “The Erbessos Blues and Other Tales of the Semantics of Case and the Semantics of Love among the Western Greeks,” La langue poétique indo-européenne : actes du colloque de travail de la Société des études indo-européennes (Indogermanische Gesellschaft, Society for Indo-European studies), Paris, 22-24 octobre 2003, ed. Georges-Jean Pinault and Daniel Petit (Leuven, 2006) 517-521; “Hipponactea quaedam,” Hesperos: Studies in Ancient Greek Poetry Presented to M. L. West on His Seventieth Birthday, ed. Patrick J. Finglass, Christopher Collard, and Nicholas J. Richardson (Oxford, 2007) 118-125.

    Kleine Schriften: Selected Writings, ed. Lisi Oliver, 2 vols. (Innsbruck, 1994). REVS.: AAHG 1997 50 (1-2): 1-4 von Hüttenbach; OLZ 1995 90 (2): 148-152 Zimmer; Selected Writings. 3, Publications 1992-2008, ed. Lisi Oliver (Innsbruck, 2008). REVS.: CRAI (2009): 794 von Hinüber; Kratylos (2010) 55: 54-60 Janda; OLZ (2010) 105 (2): 152-153 Zimmer.
    Festschrift: Mir curad: Studies Presented to Calvert Watkins, ed. Jay H. Jasanoff, H. Craig Melchert, and Lisa Oliver. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 92 (Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck. 1998).
  • Notes:

    A dominant figure in Indo-European studies and historical linguistics, Calvert Watkins played a leading role in meeting the challenge of revising the received model of Proto-Indo-European to incorporate the facts of Hittite and Tocharian, whose evidence was discovered only in the early twentieth century and was still not fully appreciated until his pioneering efforts of the 1960s. While he is primarily famous for his revolutionary analysis of the Indo-European verb, he made equally trailblazing contributions to the study of Indo-European nominal morphology and syntax. Working out the relationship of Hittite (Anatolian), Tocharian, and also Italic and Celtic to the rest of the family further led him to reexamine several broad issues of methodology in historical linguistics.

    The breadth of his interests and expertise is indicated by his position at Harvard as Professor of Classics and Linguistics. As he himself expressed it in characteristically plain language, his interest in prehistoric and early Indo-European speakers also vitally included “not only how they talked, but what they talked about.” Hence his career-long devotion to the study of “Wörter und Sachen,” mythology, and poetics, culminating (but not ending) in How to Kill a Dragon. Aspects of Indo-European Poetics (1995), a book both epochal and sui generis. The wide range of his approach had particular resonance when he joined UCLA’s Program in Indo-European Studies, which from its founding has championed a holistic approach to the study of Indo-European language, culture, and society.

    He held firm and well-formed views and did not suffer fools gladly, but he had no truck with dogma or doctrine and emphatically never presented his own analyses in such terms.  His students attest that in his teaching he never emphasized facts (most of those they were expected to learn on their own from reading and listening), but rather how to become a practicing scholar: how to read a text, how to identify a problem, how to recognize (and formulate) an argument. 

    During his long tenure at Harvard (serving four terms as Chair of the Linguistics Department) and his decade at UCLA, he was a teacher and colleague of warmth, openness, utter lack of pretension, and a genuine interest in and respect for his interlocutor (regardless of station), with a rich sense of humor and an irrepressible joie de vivre. 
  • Sources:

    Who’s Who in the East 14 (1974-5) 857; DAS 10:285-6; Jay H. Jasanoff & Brian D. Joseph, Language 91,1 (March 2015) 245-52; Harvard Gazette (28 March 2013); Joshua Katz, "The Educational Guild," Daily Princetonian (2 April 2013); H. Craig Melchert, "In Memoriam: Calvert Watkins," JIES 41, 3-4 (2013) 506-26.
  • Author: Brent Vine & Craig Reichert