Marla Perkins, Ph.D., is a linguist, logician, and speech-language pathologist. She received her doctorate in linguistics and cognitive science from the State University of New York at Buffalo and is an internationally recognized independent scholar in discourse analysis, pragmatics, semantics, and sociolinguistics. She has taught linguistics and English on four continents to students ranging in ages from two to eight-two, among whom she is appreciated for her quirky personality and wide-ranging interests, which allow her to help her students explore corners of the English language that are not accessible to many others. When asked nicely, she provides linguistic consulting services to various individual and corporate clients. She conducts field research on the island of Borneo among the Hobongan, working toward language documentation and conservation. In her spare time, if that were possible, she enjoys reading, hiking, swimming, cross-country skiing, traveling, creating fine art in ink and watercolor, and playing piano and cello. On occasion, she also solves Rubiks cubes.