Undergraduate Course: Linguistic Fieldwork and Language Description (LASC10050)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Language Sciences |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course prepares the participants to collect and analyse data on previously undocumented language phenomena, both in the sound system and in the morphosyntax. These issues are explored through lectures (1 hour per week), elicitation sessions with a native speaker of a language that is completely unfamiliar to the participants (2 hours per week), and weekly readings.
The coursework is relatively demanding: the students themselves are interviewing the native-speaker in the elicitation sessions. This requires a consistent effort in processing elicitation notes of the preceding session and preparing questions for the following session.
The incomplete reading list below gives some insight into the course content:
Gil, David (2001). Escaping Eurocentrism: fieldwork as a process of unlearning. In Paul Newman & Martha Ratliff (eds.). Linguistic Fieldwork. Cambridge University Press, 102-132.
Kutsch-Lojenga, Constance (1996). Participatory research in linguistics. Notes on linguistics 73:13-27. [available from LinguaLinks]
Payne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing Morphosyntax: A Guide for Field Linguists. Cambridge University Press.
Vaux, Bert & Justin Cooper (1999). Introduction to linguistic field methods. Lincom Europe. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should usually have at least 1 introductory level Language Science course at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this) for entry to this course. We will only consider University/College level courses.
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| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | No |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
The course aims:
(1) to familiarize the participants with the practice of controlled elicitation and other fieldwork data collection techniques;
(2) to prepare them to independently collect and analyze previously unavailable linguistic data, and to write up the resulting findings. |
Assessment Information
Participation in elicitation sessions (40%)
Project paper 3500+ words (60%)
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Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Albert Remijsen
Tel: (0131 6)50 3958
Email: b.remijsen@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Stephanie Fong
Tel:
Email: S.Fong@ed.ac.uk |
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