Doing linguistics

by International Linguistics Department

Complete Table of Contents

Summary

This book contains how to instructions for setting up a field language project and doing language analysis based upon methodologies developed by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. It provides specific information about collecting data, analyzing phonological, grammatical and semantic features, and describing the results of one's research. This information will help you get started, solve problems in your research, and help you gain linguistic insights for use in research projects or in applications such as literacy development.

Doing field work in linguistics

Collecting language data

How to collect data from everyday conversations

Eliciting data in a language learning session

Recording information about a person providing language data

Building a text collection

Eliciting texts

Eliciting an expository text

Eliciting a descriptive text

Eliciting a hortatory text

Eliciting a procedural text

Eliciting narrative text

Eliciting words by lexical relation

How to elicit specific kinds of 'dogs'

How to elicit the generic word 'dog'

How to elicit parts of a 'house'

How to elicit 'house' from its parts

How to elicit the collective term for 'sheep'

How to elicit the complement of 'true'

How to elicit the antonym of 'long'

How to elicit the directional converse of 'east'

How to elicit the relational converse of 'teacher'

How to elicit a scalar property set for 'size'

Asking questions

Eliciting synonyms

Eliciting words by semantic role

Eliciting patients

Eliciting agents

Eliciting pronouns

Eliciting words for particular conceptual categories

Eliciting words for events, processes, and states

Eliciting words for natural inanimate things

Eliciting words for man-made things

Eliciting words related to animate things

How to select a research site

Recording and storing data

Making a sound recording of language data

How to use a tape recorder for sound recording

Recording short utterances

Choosing a tape recorder

Maintaining a tape recorder

Storing disks and tapes

How to prepare for sound recording

Labeling a recording

How to use a computer for sound recording

Using a field notebook

Preparing a field notebook for data entry

Creating a referencing system for data in a field notebook

Recording data in a field notebook

Making annotations in a field notebook

Setting up an archive system

Setting up filing systems

Getting help from research assistants

Training a research team

Training language associates

How to train language associates to collect language data

How to train language associates to check language data

Collecting and glossing texts using research assistants

Training team members to keyboard text

How to do phonemic analysis with a research team

Agreeing on a tentative orthography

Involving research group members in psycholinguistic orthography testing

Finding research assistants

Evaluating potential language associates

Compensating research assistants

Analyzing language data

Analyzing semantics

Working with senses of lexical entries

Analyzing the senses of a lexeme

Discovering the senses of a lexeme

Identifying the primary sense of a lexeme

How to discover primary senses based on speaker intuition

How to differentiate senses on the basis of a lexeme's collocates

Example: How to differentiate senses on the basis of a lexeme's collocates

Eliciting sentences that illustrate different usages of a lexeme

How to use a matrix

Example: How to analyze verbs and affixes using a matrix

Eliciting specialized figurative texts

How to use lexical relations to determine senses

Example: How to use lexical relations to determine senses

How to examine sense analyses for uniform usage of a lexeme

Defining a sense

Identify the range of reference of a sense

How to substitute potential collocates to determine range of reference

Example: How to substitute potential collocates

How to contrast lexically related senses to determine the range of reference

Example: How to contrast lexically related senses

Writing a definition

Example: Writing definitions for nouns and verbs

Example: Writing definitions with obligatory antecedents

Comparing the senses of a single lexeme

How to examine existing senses of a lexeme for conceptual extendedness

Example: How to examine existing senses of a lexeme for conceptual extendedness

How to differentiate senses belonging to different lexemes

Example: How to differentiate senses belonging to different lexemes

Testing the validity of proposed senses

Testing for definitions that cover more than one sense or lexeme

Exploring the semantic roles of a verb

Doing language research

Building a personal linguistic library

Managing language data and analysis

How to analyze data

Publishing language data and analysis

Writing a technical paper

Selecting a topic for a technical paper

Making an outline for a technical paper

Writing the body of a technical paper

Using visual aids

Giving examples in a technical paper

Improving your technical writing

Writing footnotes

Formatting the paper correctly

Formatting linguistic examples

Making a bibliography

Formatting a bibliographic entry

Formatting a bibliographic entry for a book-like publication

Formatting a bibliographic entry for a re-publication

Formatting a bibliographic entry with an edition number

Formatting a bibliographic entry for a set of volumes

Formatting a bibliographic entry for a translated work

Formatting a bibliographic entry for an anthology

Formatting a bibliographic entry for a book

Formatting a bibliographic entry for a dissertation or thesis

Formatting an entry for a journal-like publication

Formatting a bibliographic entry for an article in an anthology

Formatting a bibliographic entry for an article in a journal

Formatting a bibliographic entry for a reprinted article in a publication

Formatting a bibliographic entry for an offprint

Formatting a bibliographic entry for an unpublished manuscript

Formatting a bibliographic entry for a review

Arranging bibliographic entries in a bibliography

Formatting footnotes and endnotes

Formatting bibliographic citations in endnotes

Formatting quoted material

Formatting a brief citation in text

Formatting quoted material (in general)

Doing text linguistics

Scowling at a text

Analyzing phonology

Determining the phonemic inventory and syllable structure

How to identify syllable structure

Applying the universal principles of syllable interpretation

Doing a phonemic analysis of segments

Interpreting ambiguous segments and sequences

Interpreting long segments

Interpreting consonant ambiguities

Interpreting glide and transition ambiguities

Identifying gaps in the phoneme inventory

Identifying contrastive phonemes

Comparing the occurrences of phonetically similar segments

Finding contrast through minimal pairs

Finding contrast through similar pairs

Writing a phoneme statement

How to identify allophones

How to interpret phones in free variation

Analyzing discourse

Charting a text

How to chart by columns or by indentation

How to make a Thurman chart

How to make a matrix chart

How to make a concordance display

How to make a tree chart

How to make a propostional tree chart

Studying thematic groupings

Determining the schema of a text

Doing syntactic and morphological analysis

How to analyze a verb phrase

Analyzing syntax and focus structure

Writing a reference grammar

How to test a reference grammar for information accessibility

Writing an introduction

Writing the main body of text in a reference grammar

Writing the morphology section of a reference grammar

Organizing the body of text in a reference grammar

Analyzing morphology

How to identify morphemes

How to distinguish between head-marking and dependent-marking languages

Analyzing lexical categories

Determining what lexical categories occur in a language

How to analyze features of lexical categories using componential analysis

Analyzing nouns

Analyzing verbs

Analyzing adjectives

Analyzing adverbs

How to determine the morphological type of a language

Doing linguistics as a secondary task

Appendix

Idiom "eat one's words"

Idiom "kick the bucket"

Idiom "pull one's leg"

Idiom "bee in one's bonnet"

Idiom "let the cat out of the bag"

Lexeme "feather"

Lexeme "hold"

Lexeme "run"

Lexeme "soft"

The prerequisites to writing a reference grammar

The production of speech

Universal principles for syllable interpretation