About me

My research has evolved from phenomenological literary theory in the early 1970s to my current work, stretching from Peircean semiotics, to a critique of Wittgenstein's language games, hermeneutics, with an emphasis on Kant's Critique of Judgment, an analysis of the premises of cognitive linguistics, a theorization of the role of imaginability in natural language, and other topics. They have been published in seven research monographs and over 100 papers, with another book in the making.

Awards

German DAAD scholarship for a one year research stay in South Africa
German Academic Exchange Service (Germany, Bonn) - DAAD, 1965
Grant to participate in World Shakespeare Congress in Vancouver
Rhodes University (South Africa, Grahamstown) - RU, 1972
Research Grant for visit Cambridge University in 1973 to work on literary/philosophical papers papers
Rhodes University (South Africa, Grahamstown) - RU, 1973
British Council Grant for visit to Cambridge University
British Council (United Kingdom, London) via RU, 1973
Senior Bursary for research in the Department of English, University of Victoria, BC, Canada
Rhodes University (South Africa, Grahamstown) - RU, 1973 to 1974
DAAD stipend for research at the University of Munich in 1978 for book The Reader's Construction of Narrative
German Academic Exchange Service (Germany, Bonn) - DAAD, 1978
Visiting fellow at Yale University and Ezra Styles College
Yale University (United States, New Haven), 1982
ARC Large Grant (now Discovery) 1984 for book project Pandora and Occam: On the Limits of Language and Literature
Australian Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - ARC, 1984
ARC Large Grant for Project Meaning from Frege to the Postmodern, published 1997
Australian Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - ARC, 1993
Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA)
Australian Academy of the Humanities (Australia, Canberra), 2013

Organisational Affiliations

Emeritus Professor, School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Murdoch University

Australian representative, IASS lnternational Association of Semiotic Studies

Board member, Review of Contemporary Philosophy

Board member, Analysis and Metaphysics

Board member, Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations

Board member, Brill book series "Signs"

Research Fellow, Australian Academy of the Humanities (Australia, Canberra)

Education

English and Philosophy
1967–1969, PhD, Rhodes University (South Africa, Grahamstown) - RU

Death Situations in the Modern Short Story: A Study in Structure (from a phenomenological perspective) Supervisors: Don Maclellan; Professor Guy Butler, Head of the Department of English

English and Philosophy
1966–1967, MA, Rhodes University (South Africa, Grahamstown) - RU

The Outlaw Motif in English Medieval Verse Tales Supervisor: Professor Guy Butler, Department of English

English, Philosophy, and History
1961–1965, Undergraduate unit certificates; Philosophicum 1964; , Erlangen University and University of Munich

Undergraduate unit certificates from Germany accepted as B.A. Honours Status by Rhodes University in 1966.

High School education
1951–1960, Abitur (matriculation), Deutsches Gymnasium, Schwabach, Germany

Abitur: certificate for any study at university