Language documentation

Language documentation 20 years on

“…' Himmelmann (2006) presents it as the subfield of linguistics that is 'concerned with the methods, tools, and theoretical underpinnings for compiling a representative and lasting multipurpose record of a natural language or one of its varieties' (Himmelmann 2006: v). Language documentation is by its nature multi-disciplinary, and as Woodbury (2011) notes, it is not restricted to theory and methods from linguistics but draws on 'concepts and techniques from linguistics, ethnography, psychology, computer science, recording arts, and more' (see Harrison 2005;Coelho 2005;Eisenbeiss 2005 for arguments).…”

“…viscerally and have differing stakes, purposes, goals and aspirations for language records and language documentation' . Woodbury (2011) has also highlighted a need to develop a theory of documentary corpora (covering the principles by which a particular corpus 'hangs together'), as well as a need for accounts of individual documentation project designs. Austin (2013) extends this to a general call for reflexive meta-documentation of their work by researchers concerning their documentary models, processes and practices.…”

“So it's got three meanings dil dil:” Seductive ideophony and the sounds of Navajo poetry

“…Languages and their users are, to use an old phrase from Anthony Wallace (1961: 28), “organizations of diversity” (see also Sherzer 1970). A part of a “thick translation” of verbal art, then, should include annotations and exegeses on the ways that various forms are, in practice and when possible, misunderstood (on “thick translations” see Leavitt 2006, Woodbury 2007).…”

Work on Endangered Languages

“…Figure 1: Franz Boas on the cover of Time (May 11, 1936) Boas, often described as the father of American anthropology, could also, arguably, be heralded as the father of documentary linguistics in America (Woodbury 2003). He and his students (e.g.…”