Deborah Cameron, who has died aged 67 of pancreatic cancer, was an influential sociolinguist and feminist activist.
In 2004, when she was appointed the Rupert Murdoch professor of language and communication at Oxford University, there was a delicious irony: one member of the appointment board had, in 1983, been on a panel that rejected the thesis proposal she had submitted to the research board of the English faculty. Disagreeing with the board’s decision, Cameron left Oxford without a PhD. Disadvantaged by this, but undeterred, she had her book Feminism and Linguistic Theory (the subject of her proposed thesis) published in 1985.
