Lecture: Stories from the Field

An Introduction to Linguistic Field Work

Some linguists consider field work and language documentation as the supreme discipline in linguistics, for others it is a mere means of data collection regarded with suspicion. Wherever you fall, this talk will give you a light and risk-free introduction to linguistic field work and its objectives and tools. In a world in which a large proportion of human languages is not only threatened to become extinct soon but also remains undocumented, field work and language documentation are becoming more and more crucial for the science of language as a whole. Documenting these languages not only broadens our knowledge on language but also helps to move away from an eurocentric view in all fields of linguistics, for example sociolinguistics and historical linguistics.

Why do linguists decide to spent time in strange regions instead of comfortably sitting in their offices? What do you need to prepare in before? What tools do you need? How do you make connections with informants, store your data and manage not to die? Anne and Maria will tell you thrilling and funny stories about their own field experiences, from a perspective of both language description and historical linguistics.

Info

Day: 2022-11-04
Start time: 10:15
Duration: 00:30
Room: Wiwi-Bunker —Room 3035
Track: Typology and Variational Linguistics
Language: en

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