Research Interests

Francis is Professor of Linguistics within the Department. His research interests are in the areas of English phonology and morphology, morphological theory, phonological theory, and African linguistics.

His recent articles include 'The word in Luganda' . In Studies in African Linguistic Typology Voeltz, F. K. Erhard (ed.) Typological Studies in Language 64, pp. 171-93, (written with Larry Hyman 2006), 'The syllable in Luganda phonology and morphology'. In H. van der Hulst and N. A. Ritter (eds.) The Syllable: Views and facts. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, (written with Larry Hyman, 1999); 'Bantu nominal morphology'. In Nurse, D, and Phillippson (eds.) The Bantu Languages. (London: Curzon Press, 2003); 'Phonetically motivated word-formation'. The Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics.(2nd ed. Oxford: Elsevier, 2006). He has written books entitled Introduction to Phonology (Longman, 1989), English Words (2nd edition, London: Routledge, 2005); Morphology (with John Stonham, London: Palgrave. 2nd ed. 2006) and he has edited several others, including Frontiers of Phonology, edited with Jacques Durand (Longman, 1995); Bantu Phonology and Morphology (Lincom Europa, Munich, 1995); Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction 3rd ed. (edited with William O'Grady and Michael Dobrovolsky, London: Addison Wesley Longman, 1997) and Morphology: Critical Concepts. (London: Routledge. 6 volumes, 2004)