Wendy Ayres-Bennett


Wendy Ayres-Bennett is a British linguist, Professor of French Philology and Linguistics at the University of Cambridge, England, and Professorial Fellow in Linguistics at Murray Edwards College.
She has a BA and MA in Modern Languages from Girton College and a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford. Her doctoral thesis was "Vaugelas and the development of the French language: theory and practice". After her doctorate she spent a year as a Junior Research Fellow at St Hilda's College, Oxford and was appointed as an Assistant Lecturer, then Lecturer and Reader, in the French Department at Cambridge. She became a Fellow of Murray Edwards College in 2001, and was appointed Professor of French Philology and Linguistics in 2005. In 2009 she joined the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics.
Her main research interests are the history of the French language and the history of linguistic thought. Her research interests include standardisation and codification, linguistic ideology and policy, variation and change. She is Principal Investigator on the multi-disciplinary multi-institution MEITS project: Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies., funded by the AHRC under its Open World Research Initiative. The project is working closely with policymakers and practitioners to promote the value of languages for key issues of our time and the benefits of language learning for individuals and societies.
In 2004 she was appointed as Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques. The Académie française awarded her a Prix d’Académie in 1997 for her "Remarques de l’Académie française sur le Quinte-Curce de Vaugelas" and a silver medal of the Prix Georges Dumézil in 2013 for "Remarques et observations sur la langue française. Histoire et évolution d’un genre".

Selected publications