Multilingual, Multiperson, Multimedia (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Multilingual, Multiperson, Multimedia:
Linking Audio-Visual with Text Material in Language Documentation

Patrick McConvell
AIATSIS
http://conferences.arts.usyd.edu.au/viewpaper.php?id=31&cf=2

Abstract
‘Language documentation’ for endangered and Indigenous languages has
been rapidly moving towards a more holistic view of what is to be
captured, including a range of genres, conversation as well as
narrative. Most of the languages concerned also exist in a
multilingual, multivariety language ecology, in which different age
groups may speak, and switch between different varieties. This
inevitably becomes part of what is being recorded and is crucial in the
understanding of language shift and maintenance. Added to this is the
growing realisation of the importance of paralinguistic elements such
as gesture even to the basic interpretation of utterances. For proper
documentation, what is required now is a system that can handle video,
audio, transcription, translation and other annotation, synchronically
linked. In this paper I will investigate the functionality of the CLAN
system of a/v-transcript linking, widely used for child language and
multilingual studies, and briefly compare this to other available
alternatives.

As for archival holdings of a/v and transcriptions, most of what already
exists cannot be immediately moved into such a/v-text linking systems,
because of the enormous amount of work involved. There is a need
however for some standard system for preliminary digital linking of a/v
with existing transcripts, translations and annotations, which may be
separated from each other physically and institutionally. From this,
more robust linking for analysis and multimedia presentation can be
developed. This paper reviews some of the systems being used and the
extent to which the metadata element ‘Relation’ can be refined to carry
out this task.

Please follow the link below to download a pdf version of this paper:
http://www.paradisec.org.au/paper2.pdf