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Fieldwork on endangered languages:

Colette Grinevald & Rosa Vallejos DYNAMIQUE DU LANGAGE - UNIVERSITÉ LYON 2

3L INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL

Data collection & corpus building

“Language data serves essentially as exemplification and support for the linguist’s analysis” (Austin 2006: 87)

“from the perspective of a theoretical project, a descriptive statement is considered primary data, usually called a ‘fact’” (Himmelmann 2004:6).

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LINGUISTIC RESEARCH

•  interactional data from natural settings: shows patterns of language use, language attitudes and cultural knowledge

•  record language interaction of functionally useful domains

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Data collection & corpus building LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION

•  greater emphasis on the domains of speaking & listening than metalinguistic knowledge or literacy

•  priority domains: greetings, requests, directions, descriptions, responding to commands, etc.

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Data collection & corpus building

Given the centrality of DATA for both linguistic research and revitalization processes, how we collect our data is crucial.

Methodological issues: “sampling, reliability, naturalness” (Himmelmann 1998)

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Data collection & corpus building

methods

•  direct elicitation (?)

o  paradigms, elicited sentences, grammaticality judgments…

•  staged communication: “quasi naturalistic data”

o  conversations, descriptions, directions…

•  participant observation: “naturalistic data”

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recreating settings for natural language use

•  bring people together

•  provide opportunities for social gatherings

•  promote (re)activation of networks

good for video taping different kinds of language use

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Example: Harvesting Camu-camu fruit Erlinda Murayari & Rosa Amías

Kokama (Amazon)

using stimuli •  quantifiable and comparable data

•  free from linguistic interference of the metalanguage

•  BUT: cross-cultural applicability can be limited

•  what kind of stimuli is appropriate for:

o  endangered language situations?

o  for communities with no literacy tradition?

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stimuli •  static stimuli

o  comics o  pictures books (frog story,

topological relations) o  photos (positional verbs)

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•  interactive stimuli

o  matching games o  puzzle tasks: setting

up figures o  map tasks: route

descriptions

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dynamic stimuli

•  the pear film 6 min. (Chafe, UC Berkeley, 1975)

•  the fish film 4.6 min. (Tomlin, U Oregon, 1995)

•  the cassava film 12 min (Yamada, U Oregon, 2010)

•  event trials: Projet Trajectoire: 76 video clips (DDL)

•  BUT: require the use of technology, difficult in some field settings

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•  kguadeoweñane k ũa ũhĩ tai taʤa tsɨʔowɨre •  En un hermoso lugar alguien (M) está acostado sobre una hierba suave como si fuera un

colchoncito.

•  In a beautiful place, someone (M) is lying down on a soft grass like as if it were a mat.

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Trajectoire

direct elicitation? •  complementary role: to play around with

patterns already identify in texts

•  provide negative evidence

BUT:

•  direct translation in EL contexts: very unreliable

•  grammaticality judgments: often conflicting data

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•  what are your methods to collect data?

•  have you used stimuli? what kind?

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