Course overview
Linguistic Field Methods ·
Spring 2005
Objective
This course is a hands-on investigation of the linguistic structure of
Korean. Students will learn to elicit linguistic data in collaboration
with a native-speaking language consultant and then carry out linguistic
analyses on the collected data. Over the course of the semester,
students will gradually take more reponsibility both for designing and
carrying out the elicitation sessions and also for determining the focus
and direction of the linguistic analysis.
Prerequisites
Completion of at least one linguistics course beyond Ling 30
(Introduction to Language), or equivalent background. Because a
major objective of the course is the development of skills for
investigating an unknown language, students with
prior knowledge of Korean may not enroll in the course.
Structure of the course
The course meets three days per week (MWF). After an introduction to
language structure and language typology during the first two weeks of
the course, Mondays and Wednesdays will be data elicitation sessions and
Fridays will be discussion and analysis sessions. On elicitation days,
students will take turns asking the language consultant to translate
English words and phrases into Korean, and to explain the linguistic or
social context that is relevant to the language data elicited. The first
few weeks of elicitation sessions will be organized by the instructors,
but eventually student groups will take over this task in turns. On
analysis days, students will come to class prepared to discuss the
patterns they have found in the data and how those patterns relate to
general themes in linguistic and sociolinguistic theory. Interesting
patterns identified and questions raised in analysis sections will
determine the direction that subsequent elicitation sessions will take.
Requirements
-
Class attendance and active participation in elicitation and
analysis sessions
-
Short written assignments during introductory section of course
-
Background reading assignments on linguistic analysis and
field-methods techniques
-
Field notebook that records all data elicited in class and in
outside meetings with the language consultant
-
In groups, the planning and oversight of in-class elicitation sessions
-
Weekly analysis paper addressing recently elicited data
-
Midterm paper with in-class presentation (based on data elicited during
class sessions)
-
Final paper with in-class presentation (based on in-class data
and supplementary meetings with the language consultant)
 
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