Field Methods
Instructor: Professor D. Victoria Rau
Fridays 9:10-12:00, Room 413
September 17, 2010-January 14, 2011
Institute of Linguistics Goals:
 The cultivation of professional researchers in the field of linguistics
 The cultivation of professionals with the ability to innovate, think critically, and
participate in scholarly argumentation
 The cultivation of professionals with the capability to integrate and apply linguistics
and its related fields
 The cultivation of professionals with global views, an understanding of humanities,
and the scientific spirit
Course Description:
This course covers both traditional and documentary fieldwork, guiding participants
through the methods used to produce high-quality grammatical materials and extensive
lexicons. You will read experienced fieldworkers’ accounts, learn to plan sociolinguistic
survey and/or historical linguistic studies, identify linguistic issues for data gathering and
hypothesis testing, and practice conducting prototypical linguistic fieldwork on an
indigenous language, using software to transcribe, annotate, and to build your own
database. The participants will build a Yami WordNet based on our group fieldwork,
contributing toward ontological research on endangered language documentation and
conservation. The participants are also encouraged to practice the linguistic gratuity
principle by assisting local community members with documentation of their own
language, modeled after the language documentation training center at the University of
Hawaii (http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/~uhdoc/index.html).
Goals:
1. Plan and carry out your own fieldwork.
2. Transcribe, annotate, and build your own database.
3. Practice the linguistic gratuity principle by giving back to the linguistic communities.
Resources on Linguistic Fieldwork:
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Bowern, Claire. (2008). Linguistic fieldwork: A practical guide. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan. http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bowern/fieldwork/chapters.htm
Crowley, Terry. (2007). Field linguistics: A beginner’s guide. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Crowley, Terry and Claire Bowern. (2010). An introduction to historical
linguistics. Fourth Edition. Oxford University Press.
Dobrin, Lise M. (2008). From linguistic elicitation to eliciting the linguist:
Lessons in community empowerment from Melanesia. Language 84.300-24.
Fischer, Susan. (2009). Sign language field methods: approaches, techniques, and
concerns. In Tai, J. and J. Tsay (Eds.), Taiwan sign language and beyond. Chiayi:
National Chung Cheng University. 1-19.
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Gippert, Jost, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann, and Ulrike Mosel, eds. (2006). Essentials
of language documentation. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.
Newman, Paul and Martha Ratliff, eds. (2001). Linguistic fieldwork. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Survey of California ad and other Indian languages:
http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/resources/fieldwork-tools.php
Vaux, Bert and Justin Cooper. (1999). Introduction to linguistic field methods.
Lincom Europa.
Supplemental Texts:
Blair, F. (1999). Survey on a shoestring: A manual for small-scale language surveys.
Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 1-50.
Chen, H.-P. (1998). A sociolinguistic study of second language proficiency, language use,
and language attitude among the Yami in Lanyu. MA thesis. Providence
University, Taichung: Taiwan. pp. 131-163.
Grimes, C. (2009). Documenting incipient obsolescence: a multi-pronged approach to
Dhao, eastern Indonesia. Paper presented at the 1st ICLDC.
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/5001
Grimes, J. (1995). Language survey reference guide. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of
Linguistics. pp. 4-68.
Huteson, G. (2003). Report on Social, Educational, and Sociolinguistic Issues that Impact
the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Population of Taiwan. SIL Electronic Survey
Reports SILESR 2003-020. http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2003-020
Milory, L. (1987). Observing and analysing natural language: a critical account of
sociolinguistic method. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Rau, D. V. (2004). Lexical similarity, sound change and intelligibility of Atayalic dialects,
Papers on Austronesian Subgrouping and Dialectology. Eds. by J Bowden and N.
Himmelmann, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, Australian National University. 3796.
Rau, D. V. (2000). Phonological variation and sound change in Atayal, Oceanic
Linguistics 39.1: 144-156.
Rau, D. V. (1997). Transitivity and discourse grounding in Atayal folk tales, Proceedings
of the Seventh International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, eds. by
Cecilia Odd and Wim Stokhof. Amsterdam -Atlanta, GA: Rodopi. 497-511.
Rau, D. V. and Dong, M.-N. (2006). Yami Texts with Reference Grammar and Dictionary.
Language and Linguistics, Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Taipei,
Monograph A-10. Preface, a grammar of Yami.
Rau, D. V., Chang, H.-H., and Dong, M.-N. (2009). A tale of two diphthongs in an
indigenous minority language. In Variation in Indigenous Minority Languages.
Eds. by J. N. Stanford and D. R. Preston. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John
Benjamins. 259-280.
Rau, D. V. and Florey, M. (Eds.) (2007). Documenting and revitalizing Austronesian
languages. Book URL: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/sp01/.
Rau, D. V., Yang, M.-C., Chang, H.-H. & Dong, M.-N. (December 2009). Online
dictionary and ontology building for Austronesian languages in Taiwan. Journal
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of Language Documentation and Conservation, 3.2, University of Hawaii.
http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/
SIL Electronic Survey Reports: http://www.sil.org/silesr/masthead.html
Stanford, J. and Preston, D. (2009). Introduction: The lure of a distant horizon Variation
in indigenous minority languages. In J. Stanford and D. Preston (Eds.), Variation
in indigenous minority languages. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 120.
Tagliamonte, Sali. (2006). Analysing sociolinguistic variation. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Wolfram, W. (2009). African American English and the Public Interest. In Jo Anne
Kleifgen and George Bond, eds. The Languages of African and the Diaspora:
Educating for Language Awareness. Clevedon, UK:Multilingual Matters. 249-69.
Wolfram, W., Reaser, J., and Vaughn, C. (2008). Operationalizing linguistic gratuity:
from principle to practice. Language and Linguistics Compass 2: 10.1111/j.1749818x.2008.00092.x.
Wolfram, W., Rowe, R. and Grimes, D. (2004). Sociolinguistic Involvement in
Community Perspective: Opportunity and Obligation. LAVIS III, University of
Alabama. http://web.as.ua.edu/lavis/handouts/wolfram_grimes_rowe.pdf
Websites
Software for variation studies: VARBRUL (the variable rule program): the key
methodological tool of variationist sociolinguistics
http://individual.utoronto.ca/tagliamonte/Goldvarb/GV_index.htm
Plotnik (http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/Plotnik.html)
Praat (http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/)
Speech analyzer (http://www.sil.org/computing/sa/index.htm)
Language documentation
Yami
 Online dictionary and ontology building (http://yamibow.cs.pu.edu.tw)
 Language documentation (http://yamiproject.cs.pu.edu.tw/yami)
 E-learning material development (http://yamiproject.cs.pu.edu.tw/elearn)
InField
 Infield 2008 (http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/infield/index.html)
 Infield 2010 (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~spike/Site/InField_2010.html)
LD& C
 1st International conference on language documentation and conservation
(http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/icldc09/)
 Documenting and revitalizing Austronesian languages. Book URL:
(http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/sp01/)
 LD&C journal (http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/)
HRELP- Language Documentation (http://www.hrelp.org/documentation/index.html)
MPI documentation projects: (http://www.mpi.nl/research/research-projects/projects-onlanguage-documentation-and-data-mining)
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Software for language documentation:
 Transcriber: a tool for segmenting, labeling, and transcribing speech
http://trans.sourceforge.net/en/presentation.php
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Toolbox: a data management and analysis tool for field linguists
http://www.sil.org/computing/toolbox/
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Lexique Pro: an interactive lexicon viewer and editor, with hyperlinks between
entries, category views, dictionary reversal, search, and export tools
http://www.lexiquepro.com/
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ELAN: a professional tool for the creation of complex annotations on video and
audio resources
http://www.mpi.nl/tools/elan.html
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ECONV: Converter between Transcriber, Toolbox and Elan
http://www.mpi.nl/tools/
Video clips:
When languages die by K. David Harrison
http://blip.tv/file/502673/ or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmLYo8zQOVs&feature=related
Possible fieldwork sites near CCU (personal communication with Prof. Jim Tai, Jane Tsay,
and Jung-hsing Chang):
- Dong Rong primary school, Chiayi County: Taiwanese children with immigrant
mothers from Southeast Asia (e.g., Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Filipino)
- Chiayi City: language survey
- Alishan, Chiayi County: Tsou
- Lunbei Township, Yunlin County: Hakka dialectology
- Deaf communities: Taiwan sign language documentation
Course requirements:
1. Attendance and Participation: Class members are expected to attend each class
session, arrive on time, come prepared, and participate actively.
2. Classroom assignments (60%): You are expected to submit your written assignments
electronically and do an oral report of your findings in class.
 Assignment 1: visit at least one of the InField websites on documentary linguistic
fieldwork training and write a summary of what you have discovered; 1-2 pages.
 Assignment 2: visit the LD & C journal website: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/ and
review an article or a book on fieldwork; 1-2 pages.
 Assignment 3: visit the LD & C journal website: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/ and
write a technological review on documentation software; 1-2 pages.
 Assignment 4: visit the SIL electronic survey reports website:
http://www.sil.org/silesr/masthead.html and review a sociolinguistic survey; 1-2
pages.
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Assignment 5: visit one of the Yami websites, review existing materials, and
identify a potential research topic.
 Assignment 6: write a proposed plan for a language documentation training center
(http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/~uhdoc/index.html); 1-2 pages.
3. Final project (40%): Building a Yami WordNet. Each student selects one basic
semantic category from the Yami online dictionary (http://yamibow.cs.pu.edu.tw) to
analyze Yami lexical semantics. Submit a paper (10 pages), demonstrating your
ability to apply the methods covered in the course to investigate the indigenous
language. You are expected to co-author a paper on building Yami WordNet with the
instructor and your class members to be submitted to the 12ICAL
(http://email.eva.mpg.de/~gil/12ICAL/). All progress reports require drafts and
revisions after receiving the instructor’s feedback. A one-page proposal should be
submitted and approved by the instructor early on in the course.
Grade
Mark
Description
Outstanding: The level of research, thinking, and communication are
A
96-100
outstanding.
Very good: The level of research, thinking, and communication are
A91-95
superior. Well done!
Good: The level of research, thinking, and communication are very
B+
86-90
good.
Satisfactory: The level of research, thinking, and communication are
B
81-85
satisfactory.
Acceptable but average at best: The level of research, thinking, and
B76-80
communication are acceptable.
Acceptable but definitely below average: The level of research,
C+
71-75
thinking, and communication are barely acceptable.
C or below 70 or below Not acceptable: The work is not appropriate for this class.
Tentative Schedule:
9/17 9:10-10:00 Introduction to linguistic fieldwork:
- Sociolinguistic survey on less commonly studied speech communities
- Historical linguistics
- Traditional and documentary fieldwork
- Labovian sociolinguistic fieldwork on urban dialectology
10:30-12:35 Conference on Cultural Hybridity and Interdisciplinary Research (Rm 144)
3:00-5:00 Fieldwork on Yami lexicon
9/24 Survey on a shoestring, Blair (1999) and Grimes (1995), 10:00-12:00 Fieldwork on
Yami lexicon; in preparation for abstract submission to 12ICAL
10/1 Speech community studies, Milory (1987), Tagliamonte (2006), Deaf communities
(Fischer 2009) (10:00 guest speaker: Prof. Jung-hsing Chang), Linguistic fieldwork in
our neighborhood (11:00 guest speaker: Prof. Jane Tsay)
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10/8 Traditional fieldwork (Bowern 2008, Crowley 2007, Newman & Ratliff 2001),
Documentary linguistics (Rau & Florey 2007); 10:00-12:00 Fieldwork on Yami lexicon
10/15 Assignment 1 due (to be videotaped); Conference on Taiwan Indigenous languages
and education, University of Taitung
10/22 Submit final project proposal (to be videotaped), Conference on linguistics at the
interface, National Sun Yat-sen University
10/29 Assignment 2 due; (Sports Day); 3:00-5:00 Fieldwork on Yami lexicon
11/5 Assignment 3 due; Elicitation; 10:00-12:00 Fieldwork on Yami lexicon
11/12 Assignment 4 due (to be videotaped); Mid-term exam week;
11/19 Assignment 5 due; 3:00-5:00 Fieldwork on Yami lexicon
11/26 Assignment 6 due; Field trip to Orchid Island 11/26-28 (tentative)
12/3 Transcription; Student progress report 1; 10:00-12:00 Fieldwork on Yami lexicon
12/10 Annotation Student progress report 2
12/17 Translation; Student progress report 3; 10:00-12:00 Fieldwork on Yami lexicon
12/24 Database; Student progress report 4
12/31Write up; Student progress report 5
1/7 Submit final project draft, 10:00-12:00 Fieldwork on Yami lexicon
1/14 Final presentation; Submit final project revised version; 10:00-12:00 Fieldwork on
Yami lexicon
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