175-418 Linguistic Field Methods

Formerly available as 175-034/318/418. Students who have completed 175-034 or 175-318/418 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Completion of 37.5 points of second/third-year linguistics and applied linguistics including 175-014 Phonetics and 175-015 Syntax for third year. 175-014 Phonetics, 175-015 Syntax, and admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth-year honours in linguistics and applied linguistics for fourth-year students.

This subject teaches you how to analyse an unknown language, working from scratch with a native speaker, as a class team. You will learn the main techniques for conducting such an analysis, ranging from phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, applying them in consultation sessions with an actual speaker. These skills, taught through detailed work on the language chosen, generalize to those needed to analyse any unknown language on its own terms. Ethical issues, field research techniques, goals of linguistic documentation, and relevant software and internet support, will also be covered through special workshops held during the semester. A different language is chosen each year: languages studied in the past have included Khmer, Vietnamese, Bugis (Sulawesi, Indonesia), Sasak (Lombok, Indoneseia), Lau (Solomon Islands) and Golin (PNG).