A. Ronald Walton - Chinese Linguistics

Chinese Linguistics

Walton's combination of professional interests was regarded as being unusual. He graduated from the University of Texas in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in general linguistics, before proceeding to complete an M.A. and Ph.D. at Cornell University in general and Chinese linguistics. He then commenced his academic career by teaching Chinese language and linguistics, specializing in research into Chinese dialectology and phonology. Walton was the Deputy Director and Acting Director of Cornell’s intensive Chinese language program from 1972 to 1975, before transferring to the State University of New York at Albany, the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1983, to the University of Maryland, where he stayed for the rest of his life. Walton compiled two monographs on Chinese phonology: Phonological Redundancy in Shanghai (1976) and Tone, Segment and Syllable in Chinese: A Polydimensional Approach to Surface Phonetic Structure (1983); both appeared as part of the Cornell East Asia Papers Series.