Integrating Experimental Methods, Language Documentation, and (Linguistic) Theory

Syllabus for workshop presented at CoLang 2016.Language documentation and linguistic theories mutually benefit from cooperation - data from documentation propels linguistic theories, and different theories can inform the collection of language materials. A wide array of rich, naturally occurring data collected in language documentation settings has long informed and been used for the basis for typological assertions and to further linguistic inquiry (Palosaari and Campbell 2011, Himmelmann 2012). On the other hand, O’Grady et al. (2009) use psycholinguistic theory and methods to aid in the documentation and assessment of language fluency that can be used for revitalization efforts. Additionally, the integration of experimental methods in language documentation has assisted in scientifically defining certain articulatory and acoustic parameters which are otherwise impossible to attain using only traditional documentation methodology (Miller 2008, Miller et al. 2009, Miller and Finch 2011). During this workshop, participants will learn about the incorporation of experimental methods focusing on elicitations and traditional approaches to language documentation into linguistic theory. The workshop will consist of a combination of theory, examples, and hands-on activity in an active learning format, with an emphasis on participant-led inquiry. Data will be drawn from various language families2015 NSF/BCS 1500841: CoLang 2016: Institute on Collaborative Language Research – ALASKA Alaska Native Language Cente

Variation and Preferences in Modern Hebrew Nonce Verbs

Variation and Preferences in Modern Hebrew Nonce Verb

Training African Refugee Interpreters for Health Related Research

This paper describes an approach to training African refugee interpreters for their role in health-related research. A study was proposed to evaluate the self-reported health of African Refugees in Boise, Idaho. Collaboration with a community advisory board revealed that targeted communities had members who spoke at least one of five main languages, many of whom had limited access to formal education. Interpreters were recruited from the refugee communities, and had either worked for and/or received training through one of two local hospitals. Few of the interpreters had experience serving in that role in the context of a research study. A training program was developed in a workshop format which best suited the unique attributes of these communities. Educational content covered a simplified version of the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative training information and workshop sessions to translate study consents, medical release, and research questions

Linguistic Features of Shona

This poster provides a preliminary description of the linguistic features of Shona, a major language spoken in Zimbabwe and by at least one speaker in the Boise area. Shona, spoken by over 10 million people, is characterized as an Atlantic-Congo, Narrow Bantu, Central language (S.10) within the Niger-Congo language family. As part of the capstone course in linguistics this semester, our group has met every week with a native speaker of the Karanga dialect of Shona and worked together to document the phonological, morphological, and syntactic features of the language, as well as several semantic domains of interest. The archived recordings and analyses resulting from this project will provide the scientific community with new data to promote theoretical linguistic research on Shona. Our project will benefit the Shona-speaking community as well as the Boise community by increasing linguistic awareness about the variety of languages spoken in our community and by supporting documentation efforts

Word Formation in the Dari Language

In this poster, we explore the morphological features, or word formation processes, of Dari, an Indo-Iranian language from Afghanistan with approximately twenty million speakers. Our findings were gathered through the use of linguistic field methods, which centered around collaboration with a native Dari speaker to document and explore the language