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Language DocumentationWhat is it and what is it good for 

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What is a LANGUAGE

DOCUMENTATIONA lasting, multipurpose record of a language

Should strive to include as many and asvaried records as practically feasible,covering all aspects of the set of interrelated

phenomena commonly called LANGUAGE.

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What is it

LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION could serve alarge variety of different uses in, for 

example:Language planning decisions

Preparing educational materials

Analyzing a set of problems in syntactic theory

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What is it

The goal is a not short-term record for aspecific purpose or interest group, but a

record for generations and user-groupwhose identity is still unknown and who maywant to explore questions not yet raised atthe time when the language documentation

was compiled.

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What is it

This rests on the assumption that it ispossible and useful to compile a database

for a very broadly defined subject matter (alanguage) without being guided by aspecific theoretical or practical problem inmind.

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What is it

THE GOAL: to create a record of a languagein the sense of comprehensive corpus of

primary data

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What is a LANGUAGE

DOCUMENTATION good for There are three reasons for engaging inlanguage documentation:

Language endangermentEconomy of research resources

Accountability

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Language Endangerment

A substantial number of the languages stillspoken today are threatened by extinction

Creating lasting multipurposedocumentations is one major linguisticresponse to the challenge of thedramatically increased level of languageendangerment observable in our times

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Research economy

It is in the interest of research economy (andaccountability) to feed all the primary datacollected in the project work into an openarchive and not to limit itself to publishingthe analytical results plus possibly a smallsample of primary data illustrating their 

basic materials

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If it were a common practice,comprehensive documentations for quite anumber of little-known languages couldgrow over time

This would, in turn, strengthen the empiricalbasis of all disciplines working on and withsuch languages and cultures

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Accountability

Establishing open archives for primary datais also in the interest of making analysesaccountable

Many claims and analyses for which nodocumentation is available remainunverifiable as long as substantial parts ofthe primary data remain inaccessible tofurther scrutiny

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A basic format for language

documentation

Primary data

Apparatus

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Primary Data

A language documentation should contain alarge set of primary data which provideevidence for the language(s) used at a giventime in a given community (in all of thedifferent senses of language)

Of major importance to this regard are

specimens of OBSERVABLE LINGUISTICBEHAVIOR

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ISSUES

Theoretical: There is no principled way for 

determining a temporal boundary for such arecording of all communicative events

There is a need to sample the kinds ofcommunicative events to be documented

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METALINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE

It is the tacit knowledge speakers have

about their language

It refers to the ability of native speakers to

provide interpretations and systematizationsfor linguistic units and events

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It includes all kinds of linguistically basedtaxonomies:

Kinship systemsFolk taxonomies

The documentation includes much of thebasic information that is needed for writingdescriptive grammars and dictionaries

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Corpus of primary data

Shorthand for corpus of recordings of 

observable linguistic behavior andmetalinguistic knowledge

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Apparatus

To be accessible to a broad range of users,the primary data need to need to beaccompanied by information of various kinds- this could be called APPARATUS

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METADATA

Cataloguing function

They facilitate access to a documentation or specific record within a documentation byproviding key access information in astandardized format

Organizational functionThey define the structure of the corpus

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Annotation

A transcription and a translation so that

users not familiar with the language are ableto understand what is going on in therecording

General access resources

Information accompanying the primary dataset other than metadata

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Whats new

Focus on primary data

Explicit concern for accountability

Concern for long-term storage andpreservation of primary data

Work in interdisciplinary teams

Close cooperation with and directinvolvement of speech community

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Limitations

A language documentation has the potentialto profoundly change the social structure ofthe society being documented

On a more profound level, documentationgenerally introduces a new way for accessing information and thereby may

change the whole psychosocial fabric of thesociety

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Other formats

Grammar-dictionary format

This format of language description targets

the languageThis essentially involves compiling a:

Grammar = set of rules for producing utterances

Dictionary = a list of conventional form-meaningpairings using in producing these utterances

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Extended format

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