Professor Ryan Nefdt

Professor

BA(Hons) UCT MSocSc UCT MSc Amsterdam PhD St Andrews

UCT College of Fellows Young Researcher, 2020

Winner of The Humanities Faculty Emerging Researcher Award, 2019

HSRC and Universities South Africa Emerging Researcher 2021

NRF P-rating (2021-2026)

Dean's Teaching Award (2021)

Senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol (2024-2026)

 

Areas of interest: 

Philosophy of Language, Epistemology, Linguistics, Logic, Cognitive Science, African Philosophy

Current courses: 

PHI1024F: Introduction to Philosophy

PHI3024S: Metaphysics and Epistemology (with Dr Jack Ritchie)

PHI4015S / PHI5010S: Topics in Theoretical Philosophy 

Office: 

3.07, Humanities Building

Recent books:

 

 

 

 

 

The Philosophy and Science of Language – Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Publication Date: 2020

LSS - Ryan

Language, Science, and Structure
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 2023

PTL

The Philosophy of Theoretical Linguistics - A contemporary outlook
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication date: 2024

LR

Linguistic Relativity - a guide to past debates and future prospects (with Jeff Pelletier)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 2025

 

Recent Publications: 

  1. Nefdt, R. (2024). Pullum's philosophy of linguistics: towards a unified framework. Journal of Linguistics 
  2. Nefdt, R. (2024). Theoretical linguistics and the philosophy of linguistics. Theoretical Linguistics, 50(1-2): 93-105. 
  3. Nefdt, R. & Baggio, G. (2024). Notational variants and cognition: the case of dependency grammar. Erkenntnis, 89, 2867–2897 
  4. Nefdt, R. (2024). Concepts and conceptual engineering: answering Cappelen's challenge. Inquiry, 67(1): 400-428.
  5. Nefdt, R. (2023). Motivating a scientific modelling continuum: the case of natural models in the Covid-19 pandemic. Philosophy of Science, 90(4): 880-900
  6. Nefdt, R. (2023). Biolinguistics and biological systems: a complex systems analysis of language. Biology & Philosophy, 38:12 
  7. Nefdt, R. (2023). Are machines radically contextualist? Mind & Language, 38:3: 750-771
  8. Isaac, M., Koch, S., & Nefdt, R. (2022). Conceptual engineering: a road map to practice. Philosophy Compass, 17(10): e1287