Language and Life

Kenneth Pike's influence spread far and wide during the last half of the twentieth century. The contributors to this volume are just a few of the thousands of scholars whose work was influenced by Pike's teaching and writing. These essays will help younger scholars grasp something of his intellectual influence through his contribution to linguistics, anthropology, and many other disciplines. Long before the concept of "endangered languages" came into vogue in the 1990s, Pike was instilling in his students the importance of recording, preserving, and working to keep alive the thousands of unwritten languages spoken throughout the world. Pike's work with SIL International took him to many parts of the world as a consultant and lecturer. He worked with speakers of hundreds of indigenous languages as well as with SIL field linguists studying those languages. At the same time, he interacted with scholars at international conferences and lectured at universities in many countries. Essays in this volume include papers by authors from at least ten countries and six disciplines. Readers of this volume will find a rich introduction to the life and philosophy of Dr. Pike. They will see how he considered all aspects of life - language, culture, worldview, religion, and ways of thinking and learning - to be a coherent whole. They will also find the authors' own comments as to how Pike influenced and contributed to their lives and work.