Studying and Describing Unwritten Languages

This work was the authors' response to a need they saw for methodology in field research. They give techniques for gathering and processing data from unwritten languages, and include questionnaires for many aspects of both language and culture. Examples of the latter are time, currency, measures, and kinship.

This is the English translation of a work that was first published in French in three volumes (Bouquiaux, L. & Thomas, Jacqueline M.C. (eds.), Enqu te et description des langues tradition orale. I L'enqu te de terrain et l'analyse grammaticale. II.Approche linguistique (Questionnaires grammaticaux et phrases) III Approche th matique (Questionnaire technique et Guides th matiques). Paris, SELAF, 2nd ed., 1976).

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Translator's Preface

1. Fieldwork and Grammatical Analysis

Part I: Introduction to Fieldwork

1. General problems
2. Material aspects of the study
3. Gathering data
4. Using the questionnaires
5. Processing the data

Part II: Concepts of Linguistic Analysis

1. Phonology
2. Morphology
3. Word-level analysis
4. Grammatical categories
5. Phrase-level analysis
6. The level of grammatical functions
7. Utterance level (enoncematic, clausematic)
8. Recapitulation
9. Bibliography

2. Linguistic Approach--Questionnaires

1. Instructions for the recording of linguistic data
2. linguistic inventoly questionnaire
3. Questionnaire for an extensive survey
4. Phonological guide
5. Morphology derivation and compounding
6. Verb phrase
7. The noun and the noun phrase
8. Sentence types
9. Sentence questionnaire

3. Thematic Approach--Questionnaires

1. Traditional technologies
2. Ethnobotany
3. Ethnozoology
4. Anatomy and physiology, animals and plants
5. Instructions for collecting zoological and botanical specimens
6. Sociological phenomena
7. Psychological phenomena
8. Names, measurement, and time
9. Oral tradition
10. Language contact
11. Sociolinguistic questionnaire