Kenneth L. Pike

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Kenneth L. Pike (June 9 1912–December 31 2000) was an American linguist and anthropologist. He was the originator of the theory of tagmemics and coiner of the terms "emic" and "etic".

1 Life
2 Work
3 Bibliography
- 3.1 Primary texts
- 3.2 Secondary texts
4 See also
5 External links

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Life

Pike was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, and studied theology at Gordon College, graduating with a B.A. in 1933. He initially wanted to do missionary work in China; when this was denied him, went on in 1935 to study Amerindian languages at the Summer Institute of Linguistics (S.I.L.) at the University of Oklahoma, learning Mixtec from native speakers in Mexico.

In 1937 Pike went to the University of Michigan, where he worked for his doctorate in lingustics under Edward Sapir. His research involved living among the Mixtecs, and he and his wife Evelyn developed a written system for the Mixtec language. After gaining his Ph.D. In 1942, Pike became president of S.I.L. The Institute's main function was to produce translations of the Judæo-Christian Bible into pre-literate languages, and in 1951 Pike published the Mixtec New Testament Bible. He was the President of S.I.L. International from 1942 to 1979, and President Eneritus from 1979 until his death in 2000.

As well as and in parallel with his rôle at S.I.L., Pike spent thirty years at the University of Michigan, during which time he served as chairman of its linguistics department, professor of linguistics, and director of its English Language Institute (he did pioneering work in the teaching of English as a second language), and President Emeritus of the university.

He was a member of National Academy of Sciences, the Linguistic Society of America, and the American Anthropological Association. Pike was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in linguistics.

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Work

Pike is best known for his distinction between the emic and the etic. "Emic" (as in "phonemics") refers to the subjective understanding and account of meaning in the sounds of languages, while "etic" (as in phonetics") refers to the objective study of those sounds. Pike argued that only native speakers are competent judges of emic descriptions, and are thus crucial in providing data for linguistic research, while investigators from outside the linguistic group apply scientific methods in the analysis of language, producing etic descriptions which are verifiable and reproducible. Pike himself carried out studies of indigenous languages in Australia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Ghana, Java, Mexico, Nepal, New Guinea, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Peru.

Pike developed his theory of tagmemics to help with the analysis of languages from Central and South America, by identifying (using both semantic and syntactic elements) strings of lunguistic elements capable of playing a number of different rôles.

Pike also developed the constructed language Kalaba-X for use in teaching the theory and practice of translation.

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Bibliography

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Primary texts

See Complete list of Pike's publications (over 250)
1943: Phionetics, a Critical Analysis of Phonetic Theory and a Technique for the Practical Description of Sounds (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press)
1967: Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behaviour (The Hague: Mouton)
1970: Rhetoric: Discover and Change, with R.E. Young (New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World)

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