Handbook of descriptive linguistic fieldwork (review)

Why might we need manuals for in situ linguistic research? Even as recently as twenty years ago, field research was opportunistic and individual: data were gathered from available speakers on a particular topic of interest to the linguist. The main problems linguists wanted guidance on were elicitation techniques; the primary reference was Samarin’s 1967 guidebook. Since the 1950s, theoretical questions have driven linguistics, and broad-based basic linguistic research— ‘descriptive linguistics’—fell into the background, rather than being seen as a necessary precursor to linguistic analysis. Back then, contextualized linguistic research on all but ‘major’ languages seemed less urgent, unless a national language survey was being undertaken, as was the case in, for example, China and South Africa. Otherwise, only a small minority of linguists were engaged in basic descriptive work, though other linguists certainly valued speakers of lesser-known languages for their grammaticality judgments. In any case, the majority of linguists who conducted in situ research did so without any sort of training at all.

Since the 1990s, many subdisciplines of linguistics have experienced an empirical turn, based partly on the recognition that theoretical and descriptive work is interdependent and best conducted simultaneously (see Himmelmann 1998). The discipline of linguistics and its funding agencies increasingly demand accessible data to verify claims. Linguistic typology in particular has spurred the collection of more primary data in order to find counterexamples in rarer and less-studied ‘minor’ languages. Another driving force for better language descriptions has been language communities. In maintaining and revitalizing local languages and working in partnerships with academics, indigenous communities have motivated the creation of multipurpose linguistic analyses and resources. They have also educated linguists on ethical, collaborative, and mutually beneficial research practices in a way that has changed community-based linguistic work. Today, many documentary linguistics projects result in language resources and training that benefit the communities, as well as those that benefit academic linguists. Compared to past in situ linguistic research, such projects entail potentially more partners and extensive interpersonal negotiation, as well as research in a number of subdisciplines (of linguistics, but also, for example, of language pedagogy, ethnobotany, and/or historical geography).

The above trends—the empirical turn in linguistics, the need for accessible primary data, the interest in crosslinguistic generalization, and the collaborative work with indigenous communities— have made the task of community-based language research more daunting. These days, a linguistic ‘fieldworker’ of any theoretical bent is expected to be able to be a grant writer, negotiate research collaborations both with communities and with local governments, mediate between cultures, investigate all levels of language using techniques from a variety of linguistics subdisciplines, computationally process, archive, and share data and metadata, create research products that satisfy local partners as well as funders and academia, and preferably work cross-disciplinarily as well. No wonder, then, that there is a renewed interest in handbooks for such research.

Since the 1990s, a number of introductory works on linguistic fieldwork have appeared. Each makes a different contribution; Kibrik 1977 and Vaux & Cooper 1999 focus on elicitation of linguistic structures; Newman & Ratliff 2001 and Crowley 2007 are primarily devoted to the ethical and practical aspects of in situ research. Gippert, Himmelmann, & Mosel 2006 focuses on data collection, analysis, and the integration of related disciplines for a more holistic documentation, and is aimed at more experienced researchers. Bowern 2008 is introductory but comprehensive, covering technology, data gathering, analysis, and management, and grant writing.

The current handbook’s scope and size make it the most encyclopedic effort to date; it is about twice the size of previous fieldwork guides. The authors work in documentary and descriptive linguistics in complementary world areas. Shobhana Chelliah works with Tibeto-Burman communities in northwestern India, primarily Meithei and Lamkang. Willem de Reuse works with and for Athabascan Apache communities as well as Central Siberian Yupik; he also has valuable experience in textbook development.

The Handbook consists of thirteen chapters, designed so that each chapter can stand alone...