Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork

by M. Ryan Bochnak (Editor), Lisa Matthewson (Editor)

Overview

This volume discusses methodological issues in conducting elicitation on semantic topics in a fieldwork situation. In twelve chapters discussing 11 language families from four continents, authors draw on their own fieldwork experience, pairing explicit methodological proposals with concrete examples of their use in the field. Several chapters cover issues specific to semantic topics such as modality, comparison, tense and aspect, and definiteness, while others focus on elicitation techniques more generally, addressing methodological issues such as the creation of elicitation plans, the choice of language in which to conduct elicitation, and the status of translation tasks. Together, the chapters of this volume demonstrate that elicitation on semantic topics, when conducted following sound methodologies, can and does produce reliable results. Given the high number of languages currently classified as endangered, conducting one-on-one fieldwork with native speaker consultants is critical for gathering new empirical findings that bear on linguistic theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190212339
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/30/2015
Pages:	366
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

M. Ryan Bochnak is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation, "Cross-linguistic Variation in the Semantics of Comparatives," investigated the semantics of comparative constructions in Washo (isolate/Hokan) and Luganda (Bantu).

Lisa Matthewson is Professor of Linguistics at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests center on semantic variation and universals, with specific attention to modality, tense, aspect, quantification, and presupposition. She has worked on St'át'imcets (Salish) since the early 1990s, on Gitksan (Tsimshianic) since 2010, and has recently begun investigating Niuean (Austronesian) and Tlingit (Na-Dene).

Table of Contents

Introduction
M. Ryan Bochnak and Lisa Matthewson

Part 1: General Overview of Elicitation Techniques

1. A practical epistemology for semantic elicitation in the field and elsewhere
Jürgen Bohnemeyer

2. The Problem with No-Nonsense Elicitation Plans (for semantic fieldwork)
Meagan Louie


Part 2: Techniques for Particular Semantic Domains

3. Documenting and Classifying Aspectual Classes Across Languages
Leora Bar-el

4. Investigating gradable predicates, comparison, and degree constructions in underrepresented languages
M. Ryan Bochnak and Elizabeth Bogal-Allbritten

5. Targeted construction storyboards in semantic fieldwork
Strang Burton and Lisa Matthewson

6. Reasoning about equivalence in semantic fieldwork
Amy Rose Deal

7. Investigating D in Languages With and Without Articles
Carrie Gillon

Part 3: Using Language-Internal Evidence to Guide Semantic Fieldwork

8. Linguistically establishing discourse context: two case studies from Mayan languages
Scott AnderBois and Robert Henderson

9. Semantic fieldwork on TAM
Rebecca T. Cover

10. Deriving topic effects in Kiowa with semantics and pragmatics
Andrew McKenzie

11. Reciprocity in Fieldwork and Theory
Sarah E. Murray

12. Theories of meaning in the field: Temporal and aspectual reference
Rebecca Cover and Judith Tonhauser