In Memoriam Geoffrey Leech
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It is with immense sadness that we heard about the death of Geoffrey Leech, a much-loved colleague and friend.
Geoff studied for his BA, MA and PhD in the English Department at UCL, and was an Assistant Lecturer and Lecturer here from 1962-1969. He was closely involved with the Survey during the first decade of its existence. In 1969 he moved to Lancaster where he remained ever since. After his early retirement in 1996 he continued his research with undiminished vigour, travelling across the world to deliver seminars and lectures.
Geoff became well-known as one of the authors of the Grammar of Contemporary English (1972) and the Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985), together with Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum and Jan Svartvik. He always stayed in touch with the Survey, and we are very proud to have recently published a book with him as co-editor.
Geoff was one of the world’s finest grammarians of English and a pioneering authority in the field of corpus linguistics. We will very much miss him as a friend and as an intellectual role model.
Geoff was due to be awarded an Honorary Degree from UCL on 29 August 2014. We are very sad that this event could not take place.
For an excerpt from Geoff’s autobiography, please visit his page on the Survey website.
This page last modified 28 November, 2018 by Survey Web Administrator.