AL 5398 Seminar in Applied Linguistics: Language Documentation

Spring 2010, Session I (Jan. 8–Feb. 5, 2010)
Steve Parker and Will Reiman, Instructors

After completing this course, the student will be able to describe what language documentation is (including how it differs from language description), to explain the rationale that lies behind language documentation, and to perform the basic tasks of language documentation. In addition to reading a sampling of the foundational literature in the relatively new field of documentary linguistics, the learner will gain practical, hands-on experience in carrying out the core tasks involved in a documentation project.

Competencies to be Acquired:

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Plan the contents of a documentary corpus.
• Obtain informed consent for making and sharing recordings (at both individual and community levels).
• Record communicative events and elicited lists (by audio or video or both).
• Gather appropriate situational metadata for recordings.
• Transcribe and translate the recordings (orally at first, and then in writing).
• Manage all the data generated in a documentation project.
• Prepare a complete documentary corpus for publication and archiving
  
  Prerequisite: LD 4350 Language & Society