<html><head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252"><meta name="ProgId" content="PowerPoint.Slide"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft PowerPoint 14"></head><body style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; font-size: 14px; "><div><div><div>Hello SLLING-L and SLLS list members,</div><div><br></div><div>Recently, a language documentation colleague asked me why there were so few sign language researchers conducting 'fieldwork'. She was reasonably well-informed about the field, and could name a few sign language linguists who were collecting data from micro-community/ 'village' sign language communities (e.g., in Bali), or from macro-community sign language communities in developing countries (e.g., Uganda), and identified them as doing sign language 'fieldwork'. </div><div><br></div><div>I could see her point, but I thought this was an interesting perspective, because (without wanting to diminish the challenges of those who work on sign languages in places like Bali and Uganda), I have always considered myself an 'urban fieldworker' working on the sign language varieties cities in Australia and the UK. I read the definition below, and I feel that the Auslan and BSL corpus projects I have worked on do (more or less) fit the bill:</div><div><br></div><div><!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: black; ">Bowern</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: black; "> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: black; ">(2008:7)
“…what is ‘fieldwork’? </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: black; ">My
definition is rather broad. It involves </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: black; ">the
collection of accurate data in an ethical manner</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: black; ">.
It involves </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: black; ">producing
a result which both the community and the linguist approve of</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: black; ">. That is, the ‘community’ (the people
who are affected by your being there collecting data) should know why you’re
there, what you’re doing, and they should be comfortable with the methodology
and the outcome. You should also be satisfied with the arrangements. The third
component involves </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: black; ">the
linguist interacting with a community of speakers at some level</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: black; ">. That is, fieldwork involves doing
research in a place where the language is spoken, not finding a speaker at your
university </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: black; ">and
eliciting data from them". </span></div><div><br></div><div>What do others think? Are many more of us 'fieldworkers' in Bowern's sense than our colleagues realise?</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div>Adam</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div><div>-- </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Assoc. Prof. Adam Schembri, PhD</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Director | National Institute for Deaf Studies and Sign Language</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">La Trobe University | Melbourne (Bundoora) | Victoria | 3086 | Australia</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Tel: +61 3 9479 2887 | Fax: +61 3 9479 3074 |<a href="http://www.adamschembri.net/webpage/Welcome.html">http://www.adamschembri.net/webpage/Welcome.html</a></span></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>