A query...

[Daniel L. Everett]

That is not a good solution. You need independence when you are  
verifying people's claims. You cannot let them pick and choose the  
data, etc. on a question by question basis.

Because I didn't have Piraha data on line or the right kind  
available, Peter Ladefoged came to the field to check it out. The  
first thing he said when I picked him up at the airport was that he  
was skeptical about my analyses. I said that then it would be nice to  
see him return to UCLA supporting my analysis, which I predicted that  
he would. But more seriously, when it came time to do the  
experiments, I helped him set them up and then left the area and went  
swimming. Investigators have a vested interest in the checking of  
their analyses so the data should be available, all of it, for  
perusal without going through them as middle-people.

I can't really see any excuses for not doing this. Except senility. I  
will claim this if anyone looks for data that I collected 30 years ago.

Dan


On Oct 24, 2006, at 11:49 AM, Claire Bowern wrote:

>> I have read many grammars that I am skeptical about at points. But  
>> I have no way of checking it out, unless I actually visit the  
>> people and do my own field research (which in phonology I have  
>> done - i.e. I have visited villages and spent a few days recording  
>> and analyzing phonological data, especially prosody, because the  
>> claims I had read seemed unlikely. For example one language/people  
>> that I still want to visit or would like sound files of is the  
>> Arawan language, Culina, for which Pike - many, many years ago -  
>> claimed that there were no syllables. Since the dictionary of  
>> Culina has words that look like all the other Arawan languages  
>> (and I have done fieldwork on all of those) I am betting that  
>> Culina has CV and CVV syllables (not the V and CV that some claim)  
>> like all the other Arawan languages. If the data were on-line, it  
>> would help resolve this mystery - just to take a random example).
>
> You could also email the author of the grammar. For many people  
> (and speech communities) there's a big difference between making  
> large amounts of raw data generally available and discussing and  
> sharing it with colleagues.
>
> Claire

**********************
Daniel L. Everett, Professor of Linguistics & Anthropology and Chair,
Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Campus Box 4300
Illinois State University
Normal, Illinois 61790-4300
OFFICE: 309-438-3604
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and

Honorary Professor of Linguistics
University of Manchester
Manchester, UK