LD&C Special Publication No. 15: Reflections on Language Documentation 20 Years After Himmelmann 1998

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https://hdl.handle.net/10125/61710

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    SP15 Whole Volume
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2018-12-01)
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    SP15 Cover
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2018-12-01)
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    SP15 Front Matter
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2018-12-01)
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    Introduction
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2018-12-01) McDonnell, Bradley ; Holton, Gary ; Berez-Kroeker, Andrea L.
    This chapter introduces the volume, Reflections on Language Documentation 20 Years after Himmelmann 1998, providing a short justification for the volume, summarizing each of the four major parts of the volume, and identifying major themes that emerge in the 31 chapters. It concludes by noting some of the volume's limitations.
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    Reflections on the scope of language documentation
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2018-12-01) Good, Jeff
    Language documentation is understood as the creation, annotation, preservation, and dissemination of transparent records of a language. This leads to questions as to what precisely is meant by terms such as annotation, preservation, and dissemination, as well as what patterns of linguistic behavior fall within the scope of the term language. Current approaches to language documentation tend to focus on a relatively narrow understanding of a language as a lexicogrammatical code. While this dimension of a language may be the most salient one for linguists, languages are also embedded in larger social structures, and the interaction between these structures and the deployment of lexicogrammatical codes within a community is an important dimension of a language which also merits documentation. Work on language documentation highlights the significance of developing theoretical models that underpin the notion of language, and this can have an impact not only for the practices of documentary linguists but also for the larger field of linguistics. It further suggests that documentary linguistics should not merely be seen as a subfield that is oriented around the collection of data but as one that is in a position to make substantive contributions to linguistic theory.
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    Reflections on reproducible research
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2018-12-01) Gawne, Lauren ; Berez-Kroeker, Andrea L.
    Reproducibility in language documentation and description means that the analysis given in descriptive publication is presented in a way that allows the reader to access the data on which the claims are based, to verify the analysis for themself. Linguists, including Himmelmann, have long pointed to the centrality of documentation data to linguistic description. Over the twenty years since Himmelmann’s 1998 paper we have seen a growth in digital archiving, and the rise of the Open Access movement. Although there is good infrastructure in place to make reproducible research possible, few descriptive publications clearly link to underlying data, and very little documentation data is publicly accessible. We discuss some of the institutional roadblocks to reproducibility, including a lack of support for the development of published primary data. We also look at what work on language documentation and description can learn from the recent replication crisis in psychology.
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    Meeting the transcription challenge
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2018-12-01) Himmelmann, Nikolaus P.
    The major challenge for language documentation in the next decade or two is what could be called the transcription challenge. This is a multilayered challenge that goes far beyond the practical challenge of speeding up the transcription process. Transcription, as practiced in language documentation, involves language making and changes the language ecology. Despite its centrality to language documentation, transcription remains critically undertheorized and understudied. Further progress in language documentation, and ultimately also its overall success, crucially depends on further investigating and understanding the transcription process, broadly conceived.
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    Why cultural meanings matter in endangered language research
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2018-12-01) Dobrin, Lise ; Sicoli, Mark
    In this paper we illustrate why it is important for linguists engaged in endangered language documentation to develop an analytical understanding of the cultural meanings that language, language loss, and language documentation have for the communities they work with. Acknowledging the centrality of cultural meanings has implications for the kinds of questions linguists ask about the languages they are studying. For example: How is age interpreted? What reactions are provoked by accented speech or multilingualism? Is language shift experienced as a painful loss, or a source of newfound freedom, or both? It affects the standards we set for what counts as a satisfying explanation for language endangerment, with prediction necessarily limited in sociogeographic scope. It has implications for the research methods employed, calling for serious engagement with the particular histories and interpretive practices of local linguistic communities. Analyzing cultural meanings can help us see how language use and changes in language use are experienced and therefore acted on by people whose communicative behavior we are concerned with. It can help us interpret why language shift is taking place in a particular community, guide the practices of language documentation and preservation that linguists engage in with that community, and contribute to effective revitalization.
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    Reflections on (de)colonialism in language documentation
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2018-12-01) Leonard, Wesley Y.
    With origins in colonial logics and institutions, language documentation practices can reinforce colonial power hierarchies and norms in ways that work against the needs and values of Indigenous language communities. This paper highlights major patterns through which this occurs, along with their effects, and models how language documentation can be structured in ways that are more grounded in the experiences and perspectives of the communities that use it. I propose decolonial interventions that emerge from Indigenous research principles and perspectives, and illustrate how these practices can better support language community needs while also improving the scientific value of language documentation.
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    Reflections on public awareness
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2018-12-01) Linn, Mary S.
    In this reflection, I repeat Michael Krauss’s 1992 call for linguists of all kinds to be active in creating public awareness of language endangerment, and more importantly at this stage, in motivating global attitudinal changes in support of language diversity. I purposely do not distinguish between academic and non-academic, community and non-community linguists, requiring that we all participate in this call. I distinguish different target publics, namely the endangered or minoritized language community public and the majority language public in terms of message and response. I then briefly outline past and present efforts in varying media that are part of creating awareness and action on a global scale. I focus on integration of media and message, stressing that we must be able to provide a positive vision of a linguistically diverse world and a means for the general public, especially youth, to participate in its creation.