Linguistics 214
Winter 2007
Field Linguistics (Methods)
Heriberto Avelino
Class 4 (12/02/07): Basic Sentence Structure, Word order and
elicitation techniques
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1
Today's agenda
Field trip
A further note on doing phonetics-phonology
Sentence structure, word order
About the final paper
Field trip progress
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Serapio on contacting the community.
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Dates, further progress; important issues: visa, insurance.
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Research goals:
a. Individual: Work on your specific topic
b. Collective: Work on sentence structure
2
2.1
A further note on doing phonetics-phonology
Phonotactics
We have an ok progress on understanding the sound pattern of Yucate given the rather short time of
exposure to the language. There are three aspects that we should still need to work on:
i. Phonotactics (restrictions on the combination of sounds)
ii. Syllable structure
1. Combination of sounds within a syllable.
2. Syllable types (open, closed)
3. Syllable types and prosody (stress, unstressed, tone and syllable structure)
iii. Word structure. Distribution and combination of syllables within a word.
We want to know of possible clusters (consonants) and vocalic sequences allowed (and disallowed) in the
language.
Usually we describe syllable types and 'templates' of syllables
Example. Zapotec Maximum syllabic template (elements in parenthesis are optional).
(C)CV(V)(C)(C)(C)
Linguistics 214 Class 4(12/02/07)
p.2
Word initial clusters. C1 is a stop
C2
C1
t
d
X
s
z
tS
Z
½
m
p
b
n
l
w
(pn)
bt
bd
bs
bz
btS bZ
b½
t
bl
t½
tn
d
(tl)
(dm)
k
(kl)
g
gw
kW
tS
kWs
tSt
tSd tSX
tSZ
tSn
tSl
Word initial clusters. C1 is a fricative
p
b
s
t
d
k
g
kW
s
z
tS
zb
zd
Z
Zp
Zb
Zt

p
b
½
½p
½b
X
•
•
Zd
nù
n
znù
Zk
lù
l
w j
sj
ZkW
Zs
t
g (kW)
s
tS
nù
½t
½kW
½s
½tS
½nù
Xs
XtS
Xt
•
½
s½
(st) (sd) (sk)
z
Z 
Zg
Zz
ZtS
Z Z½
Znù
Zn
zlù
zj
Zlù
Zl Zw Zj
w
A full description of the phonotactics of a language should include a similar description of word
final clusters, word medial clusters.
Then an account of the syllable clusters. Word initial sequences coincide with syllable intial ones;
however, not every syllable has the same properties as word edges.
Likewise, any account of the sound patterns of a language should include information about the
vowels (simple and dipthongs, n-thongs) and sequences of vowels allowed in one syllable.
All these factors can be further elaborated. Often there are restrictions/interactions of segment sequencing
with prosodic conditions (e.g. +ATR vowels occur in low tone syllables; lax vowels occur in unstressed
syllbles; long vowels become dipthonguized). This information should be included in the description of a
language.
As you can see, we have still plenty of opportunity to work on the phonology of Yucatec.
Linguistics 214 Class 4(12/02/07)
2.2
p.3
Practicum
It's verylikely that you will find most of the syllable patterns and clusters as long as you go asking for words
and morphosyntax. However, you could also fill the gaps by constructing potential minimal pairs. For
instance, we have words like ha? 'water', from this we can derive potential words by substituting the vowel:
Vowel quality
Lenght
Is he? a word?
Is hi? a word?
Is hI? a word?
Is h? a word?
Is hu? a word?
Is he? a word?
Is hi? a word?
Is hI? a word?
Is h? a word?
Is hu? a word?
Likewise with consonants. We have [p'] word initially like in p'ak 'tomato'. Let's try substituting the initial
consonant:
By place of articulation
t'ak
_______
tS'ak
_______
k'ak
_______
By manner
p'ak
pak
_______
_______
Now the final consonant:
By place
p'at
_______
p'atS
_______
p'ap
_______
By manner
p'ak'
_______
Just be careful on how you elicit this. What we want is to prompt the intuition of our consultant, not to
evaluate our pronunciation.
If the language has some kind of rhymes, you can ask about the similarity of words, syllables or internal
structure of the syllable (codas, onsets) by asking whether A rhymes with B (Does ha? rhymes with ha??).
Linguistics 214 Class 4(12/02/07)
3
p.4
Back to morphosyntax
The most important thing I would like to highlight at this point is that you
don't collect data for the sake of it.
Make a plan and try that every item you ask helps to understant something.
It's really painful to have tons of data for which we could not make sense or
which cannot help to clarify some particular aspect of the grammar.
1. Let's ask for independent pronouns.
2. Get some potentially transitive (see, hit, buy) and intransitive verbs (sleep, walk, cry)
3. Construct some sentences.
We should be very cautious about eliciting word order. Very often our consultant would like to give us a
response that matches our prompt as much as possible. For instance, if we are asking in English the boy saw
the the girl with the SVO word order, and the language investigated has a SVO as a possibility derived from
a more basic one, let's say VOS, then we would miss the basic, unmarked word order in simple sentences
(cf. Greenberg).
How to take care of this?
1. Ask for all possible orders trying not bias a given word order. “Is is possible to put the girl first”,
“How about the verb first?”
2. Use non-verbal stimuli: photographs, toys, video-clips; you can also act, draw, point, gesticulate.
4
Collective notes
From now on, we will start the Yucatec Mayan Ma'aya Collective Notes. This is how we'll proceed.
– You should type in the section of the elicitation session you were responsible for. Include all relevant
data so that the information of the session could be retrieved in 50 years from now.
– Make copies for the rest of the class (don't forget to make copies for Serapio).
– Send also an electronic version of your notes to the whole class.
– Then, next week, we will start numbering the collection.
– Although you are free to keep your own notes as you wish, I strongly recommend the use of the accord
folder. Binders could be an option, but I know people who have had bad accidents with those.
5
Final paper
One of the requirements of the class is a final paper and the presentation of that paper at a Field Methods
Conference (cf. syllabus), which means all of us and our friends from the Department who may want to
learn about Yucatec Maya.
Here is variation on the final paper: Instead of a final paper written up. We will have a poster session. The
idea is to achieve two (and one extra) goals:
1. You present your idea in a clear, organized and synthetic fashion (as it's expected in a paper
anyway). Note that (as in the written paper) you don't need to have the ultimate analysis on the
topic you are investigating; preliminary hypothesis to test in the field is ok, puzzling data contrasted
Linguistics 214 Class 4(12/02/07)
p.5
with what we know about phonological or syntactic theory are also ok.
2. You can get feedback from me and our fellows in the Department that may greatly help you in
preparing for fieldwork.
3. Eventually, you could use this poster to submit to a professional conference.
Readings
Mithun, Marianne. 2001. Who shapes the record: the speaker and the linguist. In Linguistic fieldwork, eds.
Paul Newman and Martha Ratliff, 34-54. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press.