Bernhard Wälchli

Methods in Contemporary Linguistics

The present volume is a broad overview of methods and methodologies in linguistics, illustrated with examples from concrete research. It collects insights gained from a broad range of linguistic sub-disciplines, ranging from core disciplines to topics in cross-linguistic and language-internal diversity or to contributions towards language, space and society. Given its critical and innovative nature, the volume is a valuable source for students and researchers of a broad range of linguistic interests.

Evolving methods for written representations of signed languages of the Deaf

Like all human languages, signed languages used in Deaf communities are analyzable according to many of the same linguistic models and constructs that are used for oral languages. The signed language linguist, however, is confronted with methodological problems stemming from the visual/corporal modality in which these languages are produced and perceived as well as the pervasive iconicity at all levels of the language. This chapter reviews some of the major methodological problems connected with the written representation of these languages, at the level of the isolated sign as well as signed texts, and then describes some newer projects and methodologies, many of which not only reflect revised theories that more accurately represent these languages but also utilize recent advances in computer and media technologies.

Multiple languages and multiple methods: Qualitative and quantitative ways of tapping into the multilingual repertoire

In this contribution, I will discuss different methods that can be used to empirically investigate the dynamics that are at work in multilingual language usage. More specifically, using examples from research on comprehension in foreign or unknown languages, I will consider the possibility of combining different methodological approaches. Methodological discussions tend to be rather uninteresting when they are tantamount to stereotypical attacks at straw men on the far and near side of the qualitative-quantitative divide (Bergman 2008b). The recurring invocations to overcome this divide by applying multi-methods approaches and so-called ‚triangulation‘ are certainly well-intentioned but often problematic due to insufficient conceptual clarity about what type of evidence lends itself to triangulation and what its epistemological status in each particular case could be (see below, Section 2.3).