Geoffrey Sampson

Geoffrey Sampson: Home Page

Hello! Summarizing myself in a few words, I am:

• an Englishman
• born in 1944 (which apparently makes me a member of the Silent Generation – I don’t know why we are called that)
• a university don
• a politically-active British subject
• writer on many topics, ranging from
  
  — the nature–nurture debate, through
  — the world’s writing systems, and
  — the statistical problem of frequency estimation, to
  — a textbook on law for computing students, and
  — translations of ancient Chinese poetry

Looking back at a career which began in the late 1960s, I see my central themes as being: to expose the wrong-headedness of a view of human nature that has permeated the academic world during my lifetime and which sees Mankind as far lesser creatures than we are (see the topics “freedom and creativity” and “language and the human mind” in my intellectual contributions page); and, to make as transparent as possible to 21st-century English-speakers a literary monument which is one of the earliest windows the world has onto the thoughts and feelings of human beings in an ancient, distant society.

Site Contents

This page gives access to other pages on:

• my life
• my career
• my intellectual contributions
• the biggest thing I ever played a (very small) part in
• my writings:
  
  — my books
  — recent and forthcoming publications
  — index to my full publication list
  — an interview on the past and future of linguistics
  — “Swimming against the current”: a video “keynote talk” about literacy acquisition and training
  — does our speech structure grow more sophisticated as we age?


• downloadable research resources produced by our team (and allies)
• some questions I am often asked about language and languages:
  
  — when and where did English begin?
  — what was the earliest ancestor of English like? (“Say something in Proto-Indo-European!”)
  — should I worry that my child is late starting to talk?


• where was Odysseus’ home?
• “Minds in Uniform” – if you would like to read just one piece of my published writing, dear visitor, I respectfully suggest that you choose this one (from a book co-authored with Anna Babarczy of Budapest)
• did Georg Cantor believe he was God’s amanuensis?
• why Guy Deutscher is wrong about Gladstone and Greek colour-blindness
• remarks on the death of learned journals
• why I am a Christian
• sad times in the Church of England
• why are metropolitan élites politically irresponsible?
• how the British Government classed me as a dissident
• my logo

Clicking on my name at top or bottom of my other pages will return you to this home page.

中文姓名

散 復 生

── 這雙姓名是我最初中文老師取的。 周文王有「四友」, 一位是散宜生。① 　第 21 世紀姓散的, 或許只有我 !

①『惟文王, 尙克修 和我有夏, 亦惟 有若 … 散 宜 生 … 無能往來, 兹迪 彝教, 文王蔑德 降于國人。』 尙書 5.16 (君奭), 12–13。

Erdős Number

5

E-Mail Address

— Please note: this public e-mail address has strong spam filters in place. For instance, any messages must be personal to me alone. Messages to multiple addressees, or with any other spamlike features, will be discarded before I see them, without notification to the sender.

… Treuþ is tresor · þe trieste on erþe

William LANGLAND

Geoffrey Sampson

last changed 22 Sep 2025