<div dir="auto">Tamsin Donaldson's grammar of Ngiyampaa (CUP, 1980) is exemplary in providing this kind of sociocultural and utterance context. An oldie but a goodie.<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Best</div><div dir="auto">Peter</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 16 Jun 2021, 17:17 Marianne Mithun, <<a href="mailto:mithun@linguistics.ucsb.edu">mithun@linguistics.ucsb.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Thanks Francoise and Lena! I heartily agree!<div><br></div><div>(And now that we're not buying so much paper and ink, this really doesn't increase the cost so much.)</div><div><br></div><div>Marianne</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Jun 16, 2021 at 3:15 AM Françoise Rose <<a href="mailto:francoise.rose@univ-lyon2.fr" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">francoise.rose@univ-lyon2.fr</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Dear all,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">I will send my answers to Eline in a private message, but I would like to share a recent experience regarding examples
in grammars.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">I am presently reviewing Lena Terhart’s grammar of Paunaka (a PhD thesis). The author gives this notice regarding how
examples are introduced in the grammar:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">“</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:CharisSIL">One peculiarity
of this work is that most examples are introduced by briefly providing<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:CharisSIL">the extralinguistic context. This is usually not done in grammatical descriptions. I<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:CharisSIL">started with this at some point, when I felt that context was necessary for understanding<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:CharisSIL">and then extended it further and further. Thus, the reader will not only learn about<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:CharisSIL">Paunaka, but also gain knowledge about the narratives and personal life stories of the<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:CharisSIL">speakers throughout this work. Whoever is irritated by this is kindly asked to simply<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:CharisSIL">overlook it.</span><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> »</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">I generally appreciate a lot when authors add important information on the context of the extract (usually in brackets
before the free translation). I was yet planning to be one of the readers who would just overlook these example introductions because my sense was that these introductions would be useful sometimes only (in my view, mainly in sections concerning discourse
issues). Actually, it turned out that I appreciate this practice very much: knowing the context very often gives a very clear interpretation to the sentence and strong indications on how the linguistic features under scrutiny works. Also, this is a very strong
indication that the linguist perfectly understands what the sentence is about. I can attest that, as a fieldworker on culturally very distinct cultures from mine, I do not always understand the contribution of every sentence to the conversation/narration.
Finally, this gives also a sense of familiarity with the culture involved in the grammar, which is extremely pleasant.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Here are two randomly-picked examples from the grammar:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:CharisSIL">Consider (516), which is about making something fall, just like (510) above. It also comes from a description of the frog story,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:CharisSIL">but this sentence was produced by Miguel and referred to another picture, the one on which the dog has made the beehive (or: wasp nest)
fall.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:CharisSIL"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:CharisSIL">A similar example comes from Mar</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">í</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:CharisSIL">a
S. who had just stated that smoking is bad<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:CharisSIL">and now provides the reason:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:CharisSIL"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Best to you all,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Françoise<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">De :</span></b><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> Lingtyp <<a href="mailto:lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>>
<b>De la part de</b> Eline Visser<br>
<b>Envoyé :</b> lundi 31 mai 2021 15:15<br>
<b>À :</b> <a href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br>
<b>Objet :</b> [Lingtyp] How do typologists use examples in grammars?<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Dear typologists,<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I’d like to learn more about how you use the examples given in grammars. I have just finished a grammar myself, and will continue to do descriptive work in the future, and this is a topic that fascinates me. I'm especially interested in
knowing if one can discern the traits of a good example (for typological use). I’d be glad if some of you could take the time to answer the questions below, either briefly or elaborately. You can email me the answers. Also, if there’s is anything published
on this topic please do let me know.<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">1. In general, do you prefer short (let’s say <1 line) or longer (> 1 line) examples? Elaborate if you wish.<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">2. In general, do you have a preference for examples from a certain genre? Which? You can interpret genre broadly or narrowly, in which ever way you like: monologue, dialogue, anecdotes, recipes, hymns, picture-matching tasks…<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">3. In general, do you have a dispreference for examples of a certain genre?<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">4. Say you have two examples that illustrate your point equally well. What could be a deciding factor for choosing one over another?<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">5. Say you can’t find an example that illustrates your point well. On a scale from 1-5, how likely is it that you will go to the language’s corpus or the attached texts in the grammar to find one yourself? (1= very unlikely, 5 = very likely)<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">6. Anything else you’d like to share about examples in grammars? Feel free to rant.<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Eline<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">P.s. For those who ordered a Kalamang grammar hard copy - they’re in Sweden, I’m in Norway, traveling isn’t as easy as I thought yet, so this takes a bit longer than I thought, sorry!<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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