[RNLD] current work on digital data-based ling descriptions?

Lise Dobrin lise.dobrin at gmail.com
Sun Dec 3 05:31:30 UTC 2017


Hi Joseph and all,

It is not really what Joseph is asking for, but check out the IATH ELAN Text Sync Tool (ETST), which is described here <https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/wxnKB8F0OZM0un?domain=scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu> and can be accessed here <https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/aYDABqTeVvWeID?domain=community.village.virginia.edu>. It's basically a way to make media+ELAN files available through a web browser, even offline, which is a step toward making transcribed documentary materials more accessible to all. I know that it can be used to link ELAN string selections to another (albeit web-based) presentation because we use it that way to link to our lexicon.

Lise


On Dec 2, 2017, at 7:18 PM, Joseph Brooks <josephdbrooks at umail.ucsb.edu> wrote:

Hi,

Thanks for the replies! To Luke's email, for me one of the main drawbacks is what you point out, how the digital grammar in the form of a website would be linked to and backed up by the archive, and how much funding that would need. My other main worry about a website (and of course other digital formats, as we all know) is that technology could change in some way we can't predict, people moving on to a completely different underlying structure for websites or something in 25-50+ years, rendering the website useless.

I'm wondering about something like a digital grammar with the philosophy/basic structure of ELAN - but (crucially) with a good interface for descriptive prose. Allowing for different levels of depth akin to showing or hiding tiers, eg you could see just the bare prose description with cited examples, or have the original audio or video for any given example.. But also just having its structure be more open to doing things like linking to additional examples of the phenomenon if it's a complex or interesting one, a 'tier' to include commentary for ex situate certain examples in their cultural context, etc. Basically a format for description that's neck-deep in the documentation, allowing for lots of flexibility 
Anyways just a thought for now,
Joseph


On Sat, Dec 2, 2017 at 3:55 PM, Luke Gessler <lukegessler at gmail.com <mailto:lukegessler at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi,

Including citations in glosses (as I see Thieberger did in his grammar) is a great idea. I'm curious, would you mind sharing some of the websites you've seen that attempt to do this?

You say you're looking for alternatives to websites, but if a grammar were prepared as a web document, it would be possible to hyperlink from the gloss in the description to the primary data, whether it's a written text, an audio recording, or something else. That seems pretty ideal, right? 

I think your concern might be that websites are often fragile and ephemeral (they definitely often are), but this isn't endemic to the medium. It is possible to use a website as a front end to a proper archive. One example that comes to mind is Lise Dobrin's Arapesh Grammar and Digital Language Archive <https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/2mpEBkU3AXo3uM?domain=arapesh.org>, which has been around since 2006 and is maintained by a technical organization at her university <https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/6eKvBwHQVJYQsd?domain=iath.virginia.edu>. 

Was that the limitation you saw in websites, or are there others you see?

Regards,
Luke Gessler

On Sat, Dec 2, 2017 at 11:12 AM, Jorge Emilio Rosés Labrada <jrosesla at uwo.ca <mailto:jrosesla at uwo.ca>> wrote:
Hi Joseph,

There's an excellent LD&C Special Publications volume edited by Sebastian Nordhoff (available here: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/NX1kBGSA4JdAuA?domain=nflrc.hawaii.edu <https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/NX1kBGSA4JdAuA?domain=nflrc.hawaii.edu>) that might be of interest. 

Best,
Jorge

-------------
Jorge Emilio Rosés Labrada
Assistant Professor, Indigenous Language Sustainability
Department of Linguistics
University of Alberta
Tel: (+1) 780-492-5698 <tel:(780)%20492-5698>
jrosesla at ualberta.ca <mailto:jrosesla at ualberta.ca> 

The University of Alberta acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 6 territory, and respects the history, languages, and cultures of the First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and all First Peoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our institution.

On Sat, Dec 2, 2017 at 9:36 AM, Joseph Brooks <josephdbrooks at umail.ucsb.edu <mailto:josephdbrooks at umail.ucsb.edu>> wrote:
Hi everyone,
I'm wondering if anyone out there is working on (or perhaps like me "very interested in but lacking the tech-know how") creating digital linguistic descriptions that link directly to the primary data, perhaps even in new and creative ways (esp including audiovisual data)? Thinking along the lines here of something inspired from a combination of Thieberger's South Efate grammar and 2009 paper + Berez(-Kroeker) Gawne & Kelly's (among others) recent work emphasizing data citation and resolvability in linguistics. 

I know that some grammars have gone as far as including CDs and that there are also websites devoted to this sort of endeavor, but I'm mostly trying to find out about alternatives to those, eg the type of thing one could archive and have openly accessible.

Thanks!
Joseph


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