Postgraduate Course: Linguistic Fieldwork and Language Description (LASC11061)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | In this course, students gain expertise in methodologies that enable them to study linguistic phenomena first-hand, using data that they themselves collect from a native-speaker consultant and then proceed to process and analyse. Through sessions with a native speaker of an unfamiliar language, the students experience the stages of discovery, confusion, and hypothesis-testing that are inherent to the study of undocumented language phenomena. The lectures and the readings support this process, by offering insight into a wide range of language structures at different levels of the grammar.
The course covers the following general topics: (1) approaches and issues in fieldwork data collection; (2) analysing the sound system of an unfamiliar language; (3) analysing the morphology, syntax, and semantics of an unfamiliar language. These topics are explored through lectures, data collection sessions with a native speaker consultant, readings, and two project papers.
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| Course description |
There are two main components to this course: data collection sessions (two classes per week) and discussion sessions (one class per week).
The data collection sessions with a native speaker consultant form the backbone of this course. Active participation is essential here. Initially, students take turns eliciting data from the speaker. It is the responsibility of each student to plan their data collection, and to analyse the data. These sessions will be recorded, and the data will be made available to all students after the session. The class works together to process, store, and distribute the data. Towards the end of the course, students work with the speaker to analyse a naturalistic text in the target language, which complements the elicited data.
In the discussion sessions, the class meets without the native speaker consultant. The format of these sessions varies, depending on what challenges the data present. For example, we might discuss possible analyses of the data, formulate hypotheses, and plan what data we could collect to choose between competing hypotheses. Sometimes there may be mini-lectures on a particular phenomenon that we have come across in the target language, to help guide students in their analysis of the data.
The classes are supplemented by additional weekly readings, which will help to broaden and deepen students¿ skills in data collection and analysis.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Students should have a good background in linguistic theory. They should have completed at least 3 Linguistics/Language Sciences courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses. Courses in the structure of a foreign language (including English) are unlikely to suffice, but this will depend on the circumstances; please consult the CO if unsure. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 33,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
163 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course is assessed in three ways: participation in elicitation sessions (20%); a short paper outlining the sound system of the target language, halfway through the course (30%); a longer project paper at the end of the course (50%). The shorter paper is 1500-2000 words long. The final project paper is a descriptive analysis of a topic in the sound system, morphology, syntax, or semantics of the target language, based on original data collected during the course. It is 3500-4000 words long. |
| Feedback |
The first project paper is submitted halfway through the course. Soon afterwards, the lecturer meets individually with each student to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this paper. In this way, feedback on the first project paper will inform both the linguistic analysis and the academic writing in the final project paper, on the basis of which 60% of the overall mark is awarded. In this way formative feedback can play an important role in helping the students to improve. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- investigate language using two data collection techniques: controlled elicitation and text analysis
- independently process and analyze linguistic data
- develop a descriptive analysis through a dialectic between data collection and reflection upon those data
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Reading List
Many of the readings come from the following texts:
Payne, Thomas, 1997. Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
Bowern, Claire, 2015. Linguistic fieldwork: A practical guide. Second edition. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
Other readings will be made available at the beginning of the course, via the Resource List on Learn.
Graduate attributes and skills:
Data analysis: The students are responsible for the processing and analysis of their raw session notes after each of the elicitation sessions, and this work is critical to the quality of the project papers.
Teamwork: a) The students are responsible for the recording, storage, processing, and distribution of audio data; b) The students work together during the elicitation sessions.
Social skills / cross-cultural communication: The native speaker consultant is typically from a non-Western background. The students establish and develop a social relationship with the speaker.
Effort and diligence: The course has a relatively high workload, and the various tasks (preparing materials for elicitation, processing of data) need to happen on a regular basis for analytic insight to develop.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Data analysis: The students are responsible for the processing and analysis of their raw session notes after each of the elicitation sessions, and this work is critical to the quality of the project papers.
Teamwork: a) The students are responsible for the recording, storage, processing, and distribution of audio data; b) The students work together during the elicitation sessions.
Social skills / cross-cultural communication: The native speaker consultant is typically from a non-Western background. The students establish and develop a social relationship with the speaker.
Effort and diligence: The course has a relatively high workload, and the various tasks (preparing materials for elicitation, processing of data) need to happen on a regular basis for analytic insight to develop.
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| Keywords | linguistic fieldwork,descriptive linguistics |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Albert Remijsen
Tel: (0131 6)50 6657
Email: b.remijsen@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Sasha Wood
Tel:
Email: swood310@ed.ac.uk |
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