Geoffrey Neil Leech FBA was a specialist in English language and linguistics.
10 Facts About Geoffrey Leech
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Geoffrey Leech was the author, co-author, or editor of more than 30 books and more than 120 published papers.
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Geoffrey Leech began his teaching career at UCL, where he was influenced by Randolph Quirk and Michael Halliday as senior colleagues.
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In 1969 Geoffrey Leech moved to Lancaster University, UK, where he was Professor of English Linguistics from 1974 to 2001.
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Geoffrey Leech was a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of UCL and of Lancaster University, a Member of the Academia Europaea and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and an honorary doctor of three universities, most recently of Charles University, Prague.
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Geoffrey Leech died in Lancaster, England on 19 August 2014.
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Geoffrey Leech has written extensively on the stylistics of literary texts.
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The approach Leech has taken to literary style relies heavily on the concept of foregrounding, a term derived from P L Garvin's translation of the Czech term aktualisace, referring to the psychological prominence of artistic effects in literature.
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The politeness maxims Geoffrey Leech distinguished are: the Tact Maxim, Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim, Modesty Maxim, Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim.
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Geoffrey Leech is criticised for allowing the addition of new maxims to be unconstrained, and for his postulation of an "absolute politeness" which does not vary according to situation, whereas most politeness theorists maintain that politeness cannot be identified out of context.