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, Indonesia), Lau (Solomon Islands), Bisayan (Philippines), Achenese (Aceh, Indonesia) and Golin (PNG).

• develop their research ability by working out the logic and structure of unknown systems;

• develop an understanding of social, ethical and cultural contexts through working with language speakers from quite different cultural backgrounds;

• develop their teamwork abilities through working with other researchers.

A preliminary phonemic analysis of the language of 2000 words 20% (due mid semester), a 2000-word inter-linearised text transcription with commentary 30% (due in the later part of the semester), and a 3000-word (4000 words of fourth year) analysis of a selected area of the language's grammar 40% (due at the end of the semester), and team contribution to the running of the research project such as maintaining the communal corpus, creating a web site illustrating key aspects of the research, maintaining the lexical database, or other tasks facilitating the research by the whole group, equivalent to 1000 words (2000 words for fourth year) 10% (ongoing through the semester).

A subject manual of articles dealing with specific issues of fieldwork (both linguistic, and anthropological fieldwork more generally) and documentary linguistics will be made available. According to the language selected for study, a series of orienting articles and/or books on related languages will be placed on reserve.

• P Newman & M Ratliff, Linguistic Field Work. CUP.