Fieldwork Forum (FForum)

When? Wednesdays 3:10PM-4:30PM

Where? Fall 2023 hybrid format (in-person in Dwinelle 1303 and via Zoom; email organizers for passcode)

What? We are a working group dedicated to the critical examination of methodologies in language documentation, description, and revitalization, as well as to the linguistic and ethnohistorical analysis that falls out from that work. Our aim is to learn from and ultimately improve upon methods for carrying out more rigorous, insightful and ethical linguistic and cultural documentation, revitalization, and revival, as well as to help researchers implement those methods.

How? Fieldwork Forum is made possible through a Working Group Grant provided by the Townsend Center for the Humanities at the University of California, Berkeley.

Who? FForum is organized by Alexander Elias (alexander_elias@berkeley.edu) and Tyler Lemon (tylerlemon@berkeley.edu). We welcome all those interested in linguistic fieldwork, with all levels of experience, including those in other departments. To join our mailing list, please write to <tylerlemon at berkeley dot edu>.

See a list of our past talks here.

Upcoming Meetings

2023.11.29 Round-table discussion: Becky Jarvis (UC Berkeley) and Tessa Scott (UC Berkeley)

Round-table discussion about the logistics of grammar writing, making grammars useful for different audiences, and the influence of the contact language on data

This round table discussion will touch upon a combination of the following questions from our broader list:

1. How did you order your grammar writing tasks?

  1. Did you work on particular modules at a time, or did you work on all at once?

  2. How did you interlace fieldwork with grammar writing?

    1. Ie, did you start writing, run into problems, go back to the field to clear up problems (can you give examples)

    2. Were you able to write while in the field?

22. Who is the audience of a grammar?  How do you make your grammar accessible to the widest set of people?
23. How does the contact language affect the data you get?  In terms of your competence in the contact language, the speaker’s competence in the contact language, how they evaluate what you’re saying in terms of your social status/relationship to the speakers and competence.
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(link to Becky Jarvis's website; link to Tessa Scott's website)

Recent Meetings

2023.08.30 Welcome back to Fieldwork Forum!

Join us for the first FForum meeting of the semester, where we will do a round robin to catch up on summer developments. All are welcome!

2023.09.13 Kate Lindsey (Boston University)

A speaker-focused grammar of Ende, a language of Papua New Guinea

In this presentation, I will talk about my work writing the first grammar of Ende, a Pahoturi River language of Papua New Guinea, and the efforts I have made to include speaker perspectives, attributions, and values throughout the manuscript. I will also talk about the challenges of drafting a grammar from an under-researched area of the world. Finally, I will open the floor for discussion on grammar writing in general and new methods for incorporating variation in language and perspective into grammars and language description.

(link to speaker website here)

2023.09.27 Round-table discussion: Chris Beier (UC Berkeley) and Zach O'Hagan (UC Berkeley)

Round-table discussion about the logistics of grammar writing, grammar organization, and making grammars useful for different audiences, including the language community

This round table discussion will touch upon a combination of the following questions from our broader list:

1. How did you order your grammar writing tasks?

  1. Did you work on particular modules at a time, or did you work on all at once?

  2. How did you interlace fieldwork with grammar writing?

    1. Ie, did you start writing, run into problems, go back to the field to clear up problems (can you give examples)

    2. Were you able to write while in the field?

2. How much data did you collect before you felt confident enough to start writing your grammar?
3. Which part of the process did you find the most difficult and why?
16. Do you feel that there is a best way to organize grammars?  A best way to organize topics?
21. How can a grammar/grammatical description be useful for the community, rather than just linguists? (translating, removing technical terms, pedagogical materials, etc.)
22. Who is the audience of a grammar?  How do you make your grammar accessible to the widest set of people?
26. How can a grammar be made useful for language use, especially purposes like language learning and/or teaching?
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(link to Chris Beier's website; link to Zach O'Hagan's website)

2023.10.11 Hossep Dolatian (Stony Brook)

Documentation of Iranian Armenian: A pandemic grammar

Iranian Armenian is an under-described dialect of Armenian that developed as a koine among the Armenians of Persia/Iran over the last few centuries. In this presentation, I go over the history of this speaker community and my involvement with them during the pandemic. I go over the factors that helped or deterred me as I prepared the first known grammar of this dialect.

(link to Hossep Dolatian's website)

2023.10.25 Round-table discussion: Maks Dąbkowski (UC Berkeley) and Hannah Sande (UC Berkeley) (CANCELED)

Round-table discussion about incorporating theory into grammatical descriptions, dealing with variation between groups of speakers and between individuals, and deciding on the scope of a grammar

This round table discussion will touch upon a combination of the following questions from our broader list:

6: To what extent do you incorporate theory into your grammatical descriptions?
     A. What is your view of the relationship between theory and description?
7: How do you deal with inter-village or even inter-speaker variation?
25: At what point do you think you’ve covered enough in your grammar?  When do you feel it’s “complete” enough?
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(link to Maks Dąbkowski's website; link to Hannah Sande's website)

2023.11.08 Claire Bowern (Yale)

The past, present, future, and irrealis of the Bardi grammar

What is the purpose of a reference grammar? Is a reference grammar a good use of a linguist's and community's time, given all the other possible language-related activities they could be working on? How do grammars relate to other language-specific projects, like dictionaries, text collections, and pedagogical materials? How do they relate to cross-linguistic grammar projects (like Grambank)? Are they written just because of the ubiquity of the Boasian triad, or are there other reasons? In this talk, I draw on my work with Bardi community members and the writing and publishing of the Bardi grammar (published by Mouton de Gruyter in 2012) to think about some of these questions. I describe the background to the grammar, the data collection and grammar-writing process, the uses it's subsequently been put to, and what I would have done differently if I could write it again.

(link to Claire Bowen's website)