A LINGUIST and Oxford academic who developed a theory known as integrationism has died aged 83.

Professor Roy Harris was Oxford University’s Professor of the Romance Languages in the 1970s and later its first Professor of General Linguistics.

The theory of integrationism, which argued words had no fixed meaning, was popularised by Prof Harris and fellow Oxford University academics in the 1980s.

Prof Harris wrote: “From an integrational perspective, there are no ‘rules of grammar’ and there are no ‘standard languages’.

“Linguistic usage is subject to constant innovation and experiment, new words, new constructions, new applications, as intelligent observers can notice for themselves almost from day to day.”

His books, The Language-Makers (1980), The Language Myth (1981) and The Language Machine (1987), set out his theories. But his research writings on the subject naturally attracted criticism.

In 2009, one reviewer for Times Higher Education wrote he had “produced virtually nothing that is recognisable as linguistics”.

He helped found the International Association for the Integrational Study of Language and Communication (IAISLC) in 1998, which wrote after his death: “The IAISLC is committed to carrying on Prof Harris’ intellectual legacy.

His writings are the works of a brilliant mind, who searched for answers to a wide range of humanistically inspired questions.”

Roy Harris was born on February 24, 1931, and attended Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital School, Bristol, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

From 1955 to 1956 he worked at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, and later recalled: “We were living a typically Bohemian Left Bank existence.”

While living there he and his wife befriended Sir Arnold Wesker, the playwright.

Prof Harris said: “He wasn’t writing plays in those days, mainly stories, and he used to read them to my wife and I quite a bit.”

He taught French at Leicester University from 1957-1961, and then moved to Oxford University to teach the subject, becoming a fellow of Keble College, living in Paddox Close, North Oxford.

He was made Professor of the Romance Languages in 1976, and in 1978 became Professor of General Linguistics.

Upon retiring in 1988 he became an emeritus fellow and professor.

He also took short-term teaching posts in Boston, Hong Kong, Paris, New Delhi and New York and in 1983 published an authoritative translation of Ferdinand de Saussure’s Le Cours de linguistique générale, outlining Saussure’s method, now known as structuralism.

Professor Harris died on February 9, following heart problems.

He is survived by his wife Rita, daughter Laura and a grandson.