Person
Capell, Arthur (1902 - 1986)
- Born
- 28 March 1902
Newtown, New South Wales, Australia - Died
- 10 August 1986
Gordon, New South Wales, Australia - Occupation
- Anthropologist, Linguist and Minister of religion
Summary
Arthur Capell was a linguist who made significant contributions to the study of languages of the indigenous people of Australia and Pacific Ocean islands. While serving as an Anglican priest in several parishes in New South Wales, he formulated his own theories on the relationships between regional languages. On returning to Sydney in 1938 after completing his PhD studies, he investigated languages in the Kimberley region and Arnhem Land, the latter interrupted by his work on A new Fijian dictionary (1941). Other pioneering linguistic studies of Papua, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, the New Hebrides and Timor culminated in A linguistic survey of the South Western Pacific (1954). Capell's other publications included contributions to social anthropology, works on Austronesian languages (including grammars), and a major reworking of his theories on the structure and development of Australian Aboriginal languages in three extensive papers published in Australian Linguistic Studies (1979).
Details
Chronology
- 1922
- Education - BA, University of Sydney
- 1922
- Education - Dip Mod Lang, Sydney Teachers' College
- 1926
- Career position - Ordained a priest in the Church of England
- 1931
- Education - MA, University of Sydney
- 1938
- Education - PhD, University of London
- 1944 - 1947
- Career position - Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney
- 1945 - 1985
- Career position - Assistant editor, Oceania
- 1948 - 1950
- Career position - President, Anthropological Society of New South Wales
- 1948 - 1967
- Career position - Reader in Oceanic languages, Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney
- 1950 - 1959
- Career position - Vice-President, Anthropological Society of New South Wales
- 1964 - 1968
- Career position - Foundation member, Council, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies
- 1977 - 1983
- Career position - Member, Editorial Board, La Monda Lingvo-Problemo
- 1979
- Career position - Fellow, Australian Academy of the Humanities
- 1981
- Award - DLitt, University of Sydney
Related entries
Published resources
Book Sections
- Newton, Peter J. F., 'Capell, Arthur (1902-1986), Anthropologist' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 17 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2007), pp. 189-190. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/capell-arthur-12292. Details
Journal Articles
- Lynch, John, 'Obituary: Arthur Capell (1902-1986)', Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, 15 (1987), 1-4. Details
- Walsh, Michael, 'Arthur Capell', Australian Aboriginal Studies, 1987 (1) (1987), 98-9. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q4798195. Details
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/59483939. Details
- 'Capell, A (19020328-19860810)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-458993. Details
Helen Cohn
Last modified: 7 April 2022