Field methods class.  

Introduction.   

Jane Simpson   6/3/07
University of Sydney

[building on material prepared for LSA Summer Institute Field Methods Class, teachers Mary Laughren, David Nash, Jane Simpson, 2006
url: http://www.anu.edu.au/linguistics/nash/LSA.301/]

Structure of class
ª Tuesday classes: general elicitation
ª Thursday classes: computer lab plus discussion of findings

The class is to be divided into groups, each of which will work on a given semantic domain (e.g. Flora+Fauna, Space and Topography, Kinship and social structures, Material culture), and on a given textlet relating to that domain.  Each group will also be responsible for:

1. uploading the soundfiles of their session onto the class website each week
2. uploading the transcription of their session  [in Transcriber or Shoebox/Toolbox format] onto a designated website each week
3. uploading the soundfiles and transcript of the general session onto the class website for one of  the session
4. providing a Shoebox/Toolbox transcription of the given textlet and their conventions for transcribing, and uploading it to the site
5. providing a dictionary for about 40 items in the group’s semantic domain, [in Shoebox/Toolbox MDF] and their conventions for making the dictionary, and uploading it to the site

Responsibility 
Responsibility to data
creation of  archival quality recordings
use good quality recorders and microphone
collecting breadth and depth of data 
(hinking in advance of the kinds of data that may be useful to collect for documenting the language (structure and use
making the material accessible

Finding material
• Meta-data
basic: read on to recorder:
place, date, name of speaker, name of recorder, language(s) being recorded, recording number

• File-naming conventions
check with the relevant archive 
– key points: maintainability, uniqueness, sequence,
Finding particular parts of material
•  Time-coding
•   Meta-data
Archiving the material

• Find the relevant archive 
• Find in advance what they require in the way of documentation from the speakers and what forms they prefer to accept
• Make a will appointing a literary executor

Responsibility to speakers
be clear from the start about what you are collecting, what it will be used for, and what will happen to it.
make materials in a form accessible to the speakers and return copies
a video of grandfather telling a story about his life is more interesting than elicitation of WH movement.
in situations of language endangerment, think and talk through scenarios of language loss and language maintenance with speakers
avoid raising unreal expectations (e.g. that documentation = maintenance)
avoid making difficulties for the people you work with

Responsibility to colleagues
everything under “responsibility to data”
everything under “responsibility to speakers”

and...  respect them and their work.  Build on it!
Preparation
"Especially in work with an endangered language, experience in phonetic transcription and basic linguistic analysis is a must. The time and patience of speakers are too precious to waste."    Mithun, Marianne. 2001. Who shapes the record: the speaker and the linguist. In Linguistic fieldwork, eds. Paul  Newman and Martha Ratliff, 34-54. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press. p.51

Crowley, Terry, 2007, Field linguistics: a beginner's guide. Oxford Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  [edited by Nick Thieberger]

Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. 2001. Places and people: field sites and informants. In Linguistic fieldwork, eds. Paul  Newman and Martha Ratliff, 55-75. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Scientific
1. familiarise yourself with material on the language
2. familiarise yourself with material on genetically related languages
3. familiarise yourself with material on neigbouring related languages
4. familiarise yourself with the history and ethnographies of the people
Practical
1. get in touch with other researchers who have been in the area
2. find out about the health situation, health insurance
3. find out about the visa and research permit – in some case this can take 18 months, in others you'll need to make an exploratory visit to get agreement from a sponsoring local organisation
4. find out about local organisations that may help you – if possible get affiliated to a local teriary institution
5. if possible, make an exploratory trip 
6. work out a budget for your trip, including informant fees, material costs, archiving costs and travel
7. get your recording gear and practise using it before leaving
8. – LSA ethics guidelines, download university's ethics form – this can take months and months
9. seek advice [take a rope, K Hale, take a comfortable pillow, Bill Foley, do each day’s work each day, and each night’s work each night, F. Merlan]