James A. Matisoff
E572291
James A. Matisoff is an American linguist renowned for his pioneering work on Sino-Tibetan historical linguistics and language reconstruction.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| James A. Matisoff canonical | 3 |
| Matisoff | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6148444 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: James A. Matisoff Context triple: [Proto-Sino-Tibetan, studiedBy, James A. Matisoff]
-
A.
Robert Blust
Robert Blust was an influential American linguist and Austronesian specialist known for his extensive comparative and historical work on the languages of the Pacific and Southeast Asia.
-
B.
Edwin G. Pulleyblank
Edwin G. Pulleyblank was a prominent Canadian sinologist and historical linguist known for his influential reconstructions of Middle Chinese phonology and major contributions to the study of Chinese historical linguistics.
-
C.
Paul Kiparsky
Paul Kiparsky is a prominent linguist known for his influential work in generative phonology and historical linguistics.
-
D.
F. William Sievers
F. William Sievers was an American sculptor known for creating prominent public monuments and memorials, particularly in the early 20th century.
-
E.
Walter Sande
Walter Sande was an American character actor known for his prolific work in film and television from the 1930s through the 1960s, often appearing in Westerns and crime dramas.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: James A. Matisoff Target entity description: James A. Matisoff is an American linguist renowned for his pioneering work on Sino-Tibetan historical linguistics and language reconstruction.
-
A.
Robert Blust
Robert Blust was an influential American linguist and Austronesian specialist known for his extensive comparative and historical work on the languages of the Pacific and Southeast Asia.
-
B.
Edwin G. Pulleyblank
Edwin G. Pulleyblank was a prominent Canadian sinologist and historical linguist known for his influential reconstructions of Middle Chinese phonology and major contributions to the study of Chinese historical linguistics.
-
C.
Paul Kiparsky
Paul Kiparsky is a prominent linguist known for his influential work in generative phonology and historical linguistics.
-
D.
F. William Sievers
F. William Sievers was an American sculptor known for creating prominent public monuments and memorials, particularly in the early 20th century.
-
E.
Walter Sande
Walter Sande was an American character actor known for his prolific work in film and television from the 1930s through the 1960s, often appearing in Westerns and crime dramas.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
linguist
ⓘ
person ⓘ professor emeritus ⓘ |
| almaMater | Yale University ⓘ |
| birthDate | 1937-07-14 ⓘ |
| birthPlace |
Boston
ⓘ
Massachusetts ⓘ United States ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| degree | PhD in Linguistics ⓘ |
| doctoralAdvisor | Bernard Bloch ⓘ |
| employer | University of California, Berkeley ⓘ |
| familyName |
Matisoff
ⓘ
linked to:
James A. Matisoff
|
| field |
Sino-Tibetan linguistics
ⓘ
Tibeto-Burman linguistics ⓘ comparative linguistics ⓘ historical linguistics ⓘ linguistics ⓘ phonology ⓘ semantics ⓘ |
| givenName | James ⓘ |
| influencedField |
Sino-Tibetan historical linguistics
ⓘ
Tibeto-Burman comparative studies ⓘ |
| knownFor |
Hmong-Mien language studies
ⓘ
Lahu language studies ⓘ Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus project ⓘ coining the term "Sinosphere" in linguistics ⓘ comparative reconstruction of Sino-Tibetan ⓘ work on Sino-Tibetan historical linguistics ⓘ |
| languageStudied |
Burmese
ⓘ
Hmong ⓘ Lahu ⓘ
linked to:
Lahu people
Tibetan ⓘ Yiddish ⓘ |
| memberOf | Linguistic Society of America ⓘ |
| name | James A. Matisoff ⓘ |
| nationality | American ⓘ |
| notableWork |
"Blessings, Curses, Hopes, and Fears: Psycho-Ostensive Expressions in Yiddish"
ⓘ
"Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction" ⓘ "Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus" ⓘ "The Grammar of Lahu" ⓘ |
| position |
Professor Emeritus of Linguistics
ⓘ
Professor of Linguistics ⓘ |
| projectLeaderOf | Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus project at UC Berkeley ⓘ |
| researchInterest |
Hmong-Mien languages
ⓘ
linked to:
Hmong-Mien
Lahu language ⓘ Sino-Tibetan comparative linguistics ⓘ Tibeto-Burman languages ⓘ semantic change ⓘ tonogenesis ⓘ |
| workInstitution | Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: James A. Matisoff Description of subject: James A. Matisoff is an American linguist renowned for his pioneering work on Sino-Tibetan historical linguistics and language reconstruction.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: James A. Matisoff