(A note about my name: I am called 'Lynne' (which is my second given name), but my name in academic publications includes the initial of my first name: M. Lynne Murphy. Alas, the university computer systems don't like first initials, and so I'm presented here with no space between the 'M.' and the 'Lynne'. Please call me 'Lynne' and cite me as 'Murphy, M. Lynne'.)

I hold a B.A. in Linguistics and Philosophy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and an A.M. (master of arts) and Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

After leaving Illinois, I held academic posts at University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) and Baylor University (Texas), before moving to England and the University of Sussex in January 2000. Since 2017, I have been Professor of Linguistics. 

I consider myself a lexicologist, which is to say I study vocabulary in various ways. This includes interests in how words and meaning are represented in the mind, how words are used, and how dictionaries are made and used. My training is mainly in semantics (linguistic meaning) and pragmatics (meaning in context).

In addition to my duties at Sussex, I am editor of Dictionaries: The Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America. I write a blog on the differences between American and British Englishes, Separated by a Common Language, and a slighter one about lexical relations called Who Shall Remain Antonymous.

In 2016 and 2020, I was a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar. The first Public Scholar Fellowship resulted in the general audience book, The Prodigal Tongue: The love-hate relationship between American and British English, was published in spring 2018 by Penguin USA and Oneworld (UK). The second fellowship has allowed me to work on a book on "small words" (If! The! Of!), to again share my linguistic enthusiasm and wonder with the general public.

If you're interested in studying with me, please see the Research and Teaching tabs on this profile.