A French professor is being investigated after he allegedly invented a Nobel Prize-like body to grant himself a prestigious award and advance his career. Florent Montaclair is accused of creating the International Society of Philology and then organising a ceremony at the National Assembly in Paris in 2016, where he awarded himself a Gold Medal of Philology. Philology is the study of language through texts and prominent linguists including Noam Chomsky are renowned for their work in the field. Prosecutors said that the unlikely tale was like something “out of a film”. Paul-Edouard Lallois, the prosecutor in charge of the inquiry, said that Montaclair began his plot in 2015.…