"fieldwork"

[Mark P. Line]

Mark Donohue wrote:
>
> Victor Golla writes:
>
> >But most linguistic data gathering requires only
> >a speaker and a linguist, a comfortable venue, and time to do the
> >work.  It is something every linguistics student could be required
> >to do with relatively little hassle, and even most dissertation-level
> >work could be carried out in similar circumstances.
>
> I for one would deny that one speaker and one linguist, without normal
> interactive society and the normal (cultural, physical) environment of
> that speaker's society, can truly represent the ideal environment in
> which to gather data.

You're so unimaginative.

The most efficient scenario, in fact, is when you even do without the one
speaker. Instead of a native informant, you use a psychic. The direct,
telepathic, brain-to-cultural-consciousness connection provides the
highest-bandwidth data collection channel possible. The only way to
improve on this methodology is to invoke the supernatural intervention of
higher beings, but this approach is still in its infancy.


-- Mark

(Mark P. Line   ----   Bellevue, Washington   ----   mline at ix.netcom.com)

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