The relevance of language documentation to the field of linguistics

Terrence Kaufman and Nora C. England delivered presentations on January 7 at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas as part of an organized session on The Relevance of Language Documentation to the Field of Linguistics: Case studies based on the Terrence Kaufman Collections at the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America, organized by Susan Smythe Kung and Gabriela Pérez Báez. Other presentations in this session were given by Eric Campbell, Daniel Suslak, Jaime Pérez González, and Gabriela Pérez Báez. The session included posters about the Kaufman Collections at AILLA presented by Susan Smythe Kung, Ryan Sullivant, Stéphanie Villard, Wikaliler Daniel Smith, and Justin D. McIntosh.Terrence Kaufman (Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh) expands on his 50 years of goal-driven language documentation in Meso-America.Nora C. England (University of Texas, Austin) discusses the impact of the Proyecto Lingüístico Francisco Marroquín (PLFM) on linguistics.