Linguistic Fieldwork

Topics include the linguist's attitude, the work session and the roles of native speakers.

This book is a collection of original essays on the practice of linguistic fieldwork and language documentation. Twelve of the leading field linguists in the world have written personal essays about the study of languages in a natural setting. Drawing on extensive research experience, they pass on the lessons they have learnt, review the techniques that they found worked best in practice, and discuss a variety of relevant topics, including the attitude of the linguist, the structure and content of the work session, the varied roles of native speakers, and the practical and personal challenges of doing research in an unfamiliar environment. Covering a wide range of field areas, and written in an accessible manner, the book will be indispensable to fieldworkers in linguistics, anthropology, folklore and oral history.

Introduction Paul Newman and Martha Ratliff; 1. Fieldwork as a state of mind Larry M. Hyman; 2. Who shapes the record: the speaker and the linguist Marianne Mithun; 3. Places and people: field sites and informants Gerrit J. Dimmendaal; 4. Ulwa (Southern Sumu): the beginnings of a language research project Ken Hale; 5. Escaping Eurocentrism: fieldwork as a process of unlearning David Gil; 6. Surprises in Sutherland: linguistic variability amidst social uniformity Nancy C. Dorian; 7. The role of text collection and elicitation in linguistic fieldwork Shobhana L. Chelliah; 8. Monolingual field research Daniel L. Everett; 9. The give and take of fieldwork: noun classes and other concerns in Fatick, Senegal Fiona McLaughlin and Thierno Seydou Sall; 10. Phonetic Fieldwork Ian Maddieson; 11. Learning as one goes Keren Rice; 12. The last speaker is dead - long live the last speaker! Nicholas Evans.

These essays consider language study in a natural setting, reviewing the techniques which worked best in practice. The authors discuss relevant topics, including the linguist's attitude, the structure/content of the work session, the roles of native speakers, and the practical/personal challenges of doing research in an unfamiliar environment.

Paul Newman is Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Director of the West African Languages Institute at Indiana University.
Martha Ratliff is Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English at Wayne State University.