How I Got Here and Where I'm Going Next

Abstract

My career falls into two distinct periods. The first two decades featured insecurity combined with the luck of wandering into situations that ultimately helped me become a better linguist and a better teacher. I had the insecurity mostly under control by the watershed year of 1988, when I published a favorably reviewed coauthored book on language contact and also became editor of Language. Language contact has occupied most of my research time since then, but my first encounter with Séliš-Ql'ispé (a.k.a. Montana Salish), in 1981, led to a 40-year dedication to finding out more about the language and its history.