Charles Kay Ogden

Charles Kay Ogden (1 June 1889 – 20 March 1957) was a British linguist, philosopher, and writer. Described as a polymath but also an eccentric and outsider, he took part in many ventures related to literature, politics, the arts, and philosophy, having a broad effect particularly as an editor, translator, and activist on behalf of a reformed version of the English language. He is typically defined as a linguistic psychologist, and is now mostly remembered as the inventor and propagator of Basic English. Ogden co-founded the Heretics Society in Cambridge in 1909, which questioned traditional authorities and religious dogmas. He served as its president for over a decade, inviting prominent speakers and linking the society to his role as editor of the Cambridge Magazine. He founded the weekly Cambridge Magazine in 1912 and edited it until 1922, using it as an organ for international comment on politics and the war. His most enduring written work is "The Meaning of Meaning" (1923), co-authored with I. A. Richards, which explored the function of language and introduced the semantic triangle. From 1925 until his death, Ogden dedicated himself to advocating for Basic English, a simplified language system of 850 words, founding the Orthological Institute in 1927 to promote it. He died unmarried in London in 1957.