Ulrike Mosel

Essentials of language documentation

Language documentation is a rapidly emerging new field in linguistics which is concerned with the methods, tools and theoretical underpinnings for compiling a representative and lasting multipurpose record of a natural language. This volume presents in-depth introductions to major aspects of language documentation, including overviews on fieldwork ethics and data processing, guidelines for the basic annotation of digitally-stored multimedia corpora and a discussion on how to build and maintain a language archive. It combines theoretical and practical considerations and makes specific suggestions for the most common problems encountered in language documentation. Key features textbook introduction to Language Documentation considers all common problems

Chapter 2 Ethics and practicalities of cooperative fieldwork and analysis

cooperative. In John Haviland and Jose Antonio Flores Farfan, eds. Bases de la documentación lingüística. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas, pp. 49–89. Spanish translation of Dwyer, Arienne M. 2006. Ethics and practicalities of cooperative fieldwork and analysis. In Gippert, Jost, Mosel, Ulrike and Nicolaus Himmelmann, eds. Fundamentals of Language Documentation: A Handbook. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 31-66. Preprint.

Chapter 1 Language documentation: What is it and what is it good for?

This chapter defines language documentation as a field of linguistic inquiry and practice in its own right which is primarily concerned with the compilation and preservation of linguistic primary data and interfaces between primary data and various types of analyses based on these data. Furthermore, it argues (in Section 2) that while language endangerment is a major reason for getting involved in language documentation, it is not the only one. Language documentations strengthen the empirical foundations of those branches of linguistics and related disciplines which heavily draw on data of little-known speech communities (e.g. linguistic typology, cognitive anthropology, etc.) in that they significantly improve accountability (verifiability) and economizing research resources. The primary data which constitute the core of a language documentation include audio or video recordings of a communicative event (a narrative, a conversation, etc.), but also the notes taken in an elicitation session, or a genealogy written down by a literate native speaker. These primary data are compiled in a structured corpus and have to be made accessible by various types of annotations and commentary, here summarily referred to as the “apparatus”. Sections 3 and 4 provide further discussion of the components and structure of language documentations. Section 5 concludes with a preview of the remaining chapters of this book.

Vitu grammar sketch (review)

Vitu, also called Muduapa and Mudua, is a Meso-Melanesian language that is spoken by approximately 7,000 people on the French Islands in the West New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea. It is an “isolate within the Meso-Melanesian Linkage of Western Oceanic” (Ross 2002:362) and phonologically and grammatically considered as a conservative Oceanic language. The grammar is a sketch in every sense of the word, as it outlines the basic structures of the language, but also shows areas where more details are necessary to get the full picture. Each grammatical phenomenon is illustrated by several glossed and translated examples, which enable readers to scrutinize the analysis. The source of the examples, however, is only occasionally indicated. The authors say in the introduction that many examples come from stories written in literacy courses (5), and later remark that they have been edited by native speakers (208, 234, 237), but whether the so-called “natural texts” (64) are spoken or written is not obvious. From the viewpoint of documentary linguistics, however, even the shortest sketch grammar should give the source of every example and indicate whether is has been extracted from recordings, overheard in conversations, found in an unedited or edited written text, or elicited. The book is organized into nine chapters that describe the language in an ascending manner, progressing from phonology to complex sentences. Chapter 1 (1–7) describes the location of the language, its dialects, its sociocultural setting, and its main typological features. Chapter 2 (8–20) gives an overview of phonology and morphophonemics. Chapter 3 “Nouns and noun phrases” (21–68) describes the pronouns, the overlapping subclassification of nouns into alienable and inalienable nouns on the one hand and proper and common nouns on the other, the derivation of nouns by affixation and reduplication, possessive constructions, and finally the sequential order of elements in the NP. Chapter 4 “Verbs” (69–96) distinguishes three classes of verbs on the basis of their argument structure (intransitive, transitive, experiencer verbs) and describes various kinds of morphologically complex verbs such as causatives, reciprocals, passive verb forms, reduplicated verbs, and verbal compounds. Chapter 5 (97–124) gives a detailed account of “aspect-mood-sequentiality” markers (AMS). Chapter 6 “The prepositional phrase” (125–42) describes the use of the four Vitu prepositions and the proform vona, which is a suppletive form of the general preposition ni plus the third person singular pronoun. Chapter 7 “The clause” (143–81) analyzes various types of clauses and serial verb constructions, whereas chapter 8 (182–207), with the somewhat misleading title “Clausal modifications,” deals with various kinds of negation on phrasal and clausal levels, the expression of commands (imperative mode, prohibitive mode, and adhortative mode), and the formation of questions. Chapter 9 (208–33) describes complex sentences. The grammar concludes with two glossed and translated texts that were written and edited by native speakers (234–44).

Chapter 14 Linguistic documentation and the encoding of textual materials

Dies ist eine Internet-Sonderausgabe des Aufsatzes „Linguistic documentation and the encoding of textual materials“ von Jost Gippert (2005). Sie sollte nicht zitiert werden. Zitate sind der Originalausgabe in Essentials of Language Documentation, edited by Jost Gippert, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann, Ulrike Mosel, Berlin / New York: de Gruyter 2006 (Trends in Linguistics, 178), 337-361 (chapter 14) zu entnehmen.