John J. Gumperz (1922-2013) was an American sociolinguist and anthropologist known for his work in the field of intercultural communication and discourse analysis. He was a pioneer in studying how language and communication are influenced by social and cultural factors. Gumperz developed the concept of "communicative competence" and conducted extensive research on language variation and code-switching in multilingual communities. His work has had a significant impact on the understanding of language and communication in diverse cultural contexts.