LING407-13W (C) Whole Year 2013

Field Methods

30 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 18 February 2013
End Date: Sunday, 10 November 2013
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 1 March 2013
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 30 August 2013

Description

A practical introduction to the means by which linguists obtain raw linguistic data from some language and begin the task of describing and analysing its structure.

This course is an introduction to linguistic field methods – the means by which linguists obtain raw linguistic data from some language and begin the task of describing and analysing its structure. The course gives students the opportunity to put into practice and refine what they have previously learned about linguistics. This ‘hands-on’ involvement with analysing a language is a bit like the sort of on-the-job training that is otherwise hard to come by in academic settings, and the students typically find this course an exciting and enriching experience.
Working on a regular basis with a speaker of a language not previously studied by the class participants, students together analyse the phonology, grammar and vocabulary of the language.
Many thanks to the UC College of Arts and all members of the Pacific Working Group for creating an award to support a Pacific language consultant for this course.

Prerequisites: Enrolment is subject to approval of the Programme Director. Students who enrol in this course will usually have completed an undergraduate degree in linguistics.

Learning Outcomes

  • Through their experiences with this course, students are anticipated to be able to:
  • collaborate with a language consultant to obtain linguistic data at the levels of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics
  • relate to potentially culturally sensitive topics with respect
  • classify and analyse elicited data using methodology appropriate to the different linguistic levels
  • work both independently and collaboratively to understand and solve linguistic problems
  • communicate their findings effectively, both to a linguistic audience and to the local community
  • provide constructive feedback to their peers

    Expectations
    Students are expected to regularly attend our class sessions, take an active part in elicitation sessions and class discussions, and freely share ideas, data and insights with everybody in the class.

Prerequisites

Subject to approval of the Programme Director.

Course Coordinator

Heidi Quinn

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Glossed passage 20%
Independent research project 50%
Peer review of independent research 10%
Session management 10%
Toolbox data management 10%


Type of assessment weighting % date (if applicable)
Session management 10% throughout Semester 1
Toolbox data management 10% throughout Semester 1
Glossed passage             20% due at the end of Semester 1
Peer review of independent research 10% due early in Term 4
Independent research project 50% due at the end of Semester 2

Textbooks / Resources

Required Texts

Bowern, Claire; Linguistic fieldwork : a practical guide ; Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Payne, Thomas E; Describing morphosyntax: a guide for field linguists ; Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Recommended Reading

Payne, Thomas Edward; Describing morphosyntax : a guide for field linguists ; Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Course links

Library portal
The course outline is available on LEARN (only for students enrolled in this course).
LEARN Other material, which may be helpful, can be found at the Library Subject Guide for Linguistics: http://canterbury.libguides.com/ Information about the Linguistics Department, including degree requirements, can be found at: http://www.saps.canterbury.ac.nz/ling/ Timetable See: https://mytimetable.canterbury.ac.nz/ Please note: The scheduling of the sessions for this course depends very much on what times suit our language consultant. It is therefore possible that we will end up using a different time slot to the one advertised in the Course Information System.

Notes

To access the Learn page for the course, go to www.learn.canterbury.ac.nz, and log in with your usual UC username and password. You will see a menu of the courses you are enrolled in.


Enrolment and withdrawal dates
The final date to complete change of enrolment to add or to withdraw from a course with a full tuition fee refund is 2 March 2013 for Semester One and Whole Year courses and 20 July for Semester Two courses. The final date to withdraw (no refund) is 30 April 2013 for Semester One courses, 30 June for Whole Year courses, and 31 August for Semester Two courses. Details about this process are contained in your Enrolment Offer. Otherwise phone the Contact Centre on +64 3 364 2555 or 0800 VARSITY (827 748).

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,562.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Language, Social and Political Sciences .

All LING407 Occurrences

  • LING407-13W (C) Whole Year 2013