LIP July 2011

Topic      Philology in Language Documentation and Description (discussion led by Willem de Reuse, Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University, and Dept. of Linguistics and Technical Communication, University of North Texas, USA)

Date       Tuesday 5th July

Time       7:00 pm

Venue     Upstairs room, Prince Alfred Hotel, 191 Grattan St, Carlton (corner of Bouverie St), ph ‪(03) 9347-3033‬

Food and drinks available at the venue.

Contact   Ruth Singer if you have any questions rsinger@unimelb.edu.au

Background

Philology has been defined by Goddard (1976:72) as, “part of the discipline of linguistics that is concerned with getting from texts and other recorded attestations of languages systematic information that is not directly conveyed by such records as they stand.” Goddard further distinguishes a branch of philology that is concerned with gathering information on cultures, and a branch of philology which is concerned with gathering information about the languages themselves. As descriptive and documentary fieldworkers, we are primarily concerned with the second branch.

Why is philology relevant to descriptive and documentary fieldwork? A substantial portion of records in lesser known, or generally unwritten languages, or endangered languages, consists of word lists, field notes, unpublished grammars, dictionaries, text collections, and religious materials written by a variety of people. Fewer and fewer languages of the world have absolutely nothing written about them, so part of fieldwork preparation is to be able to read and use the old records, if they exist.

In this discussion, we will focus on advice on how to use older records. For example, a fieldworker can study them to see what is missing, so that s/he can re-elicit and/or build on the old documents.

Background readings

Some of the following readings will be made available closer to the night.

Chelliah, Shobhana L., and Willem J. de Reuse. 2011. Handbook of Descriptive Linguistic Fieldwork, Chapter 5, Sections 5.1 and 5.2. Dordrecht: Springer.

Goddard, R. Ives. 1976. "Philological Approaches to the Study of North American Indian Languages: Documents and Documentation". In Native Languages of the Americas, Vol. 1, ed. by Thomas A. Sebeok, 73-91. New York: Plenum Press.

Thieberger, Nicholas, ed. 1995. Paper and Talk: A manual for Reconstituting materials in Australian Indigenous Languages from Historical Sources. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.