He is Professor Emeritus of General and Romance Linguistics at the University of Manchester.
[1] He is best known for his work on morphology, syntax, and historical linguistics, with particular focus on the Romance languages.
Until 2011, he held the Mont Follick Chair of Comparative Philology in the School of Languages, Linguistics & Cultures at the University of Manchester.
He was the chair of Main Panel M[4] in the Research Assessment Exercise, 2008.
In 2007, Vincent was honoured with a Festschrift[5] with contributions by colleagues and former students.