This unit introduces students to gathering, organising and analysing linguistic data through direct work with a speaker of an unfamiliar language. Students will carry out both collaborative group work and an individual project. A wide range of topics will be covered: the ethical and practical issues of working in the field, data collection techniques, theoretically informed analysis of the collected data, archiving. The aim is to document and analyse linguistic data by learning about tools and techniques for eliciting, recording, transcribing, archiving and presenting linguistic material, including the creation, use and archiving of digital audio and video data.
Topics:
1. Orientation & goals of linguistic fieldwork
Workflow, metadata
Ethics of fieldwork
2. Elicitation
Collecting & recording language data
Transcription, translation and annotation
Beyond elicitation – spontaneous speech, texts, and conversations
3. Language data management
Using software to manage data
Archiving and access
4. Collaborative fieldwork
Models
Language documentation
5. Lexicography
Dictionary structure
Bilingual dictionaries
