Sign language 'fieldwork'

[Terry Janzen]

Dear all, 

Very nicely put, Myriam. I too have long considered what I do as field work,
and in a rather exotic place too: Winnipeg! Really, what¹s the difference?
In my department I have had conversations with other linguists who believe
that where you conduct your field work is within the community of those
speakers or signers, no matter where they reside. Lots of other field work
goes on here in Manitoba on other languages as well, such as Cree and
Ojibwe, and field linguists don¹t always need to travel too far to do their
work either. So one location versus another is not a distinguishing feature
of this kind of work.

Cheers from mild not-very-winter-like Winnipeg,
Terry


On 12-02-02 2:03 AM, "Myriam Vermeerbergen" <mvermeer at mac.com> wrote:

> Dear Adam,
> Dear Colleagues,
> 
> short response in between exam marking:
> 
> I did not think of myself as a field linguist until discussing my work (and
> how I collected my data) with Colette Craig a couple of years ago (maybe
> already ten years ago) . She pointed out that what I do was rather similar to
> what she and other "spoken language field linguists" do, only "your field is
> situated around the corner of the block" and it does not take me much travel
> to get to the community I work with. I agreed at that time and I still agree
> now.
> 
> Wishing you a nice day from a freezing cold Belgium,
> 
> Myriam Vermeerbergen
> 

-- 
Dr. Terry Janzen, Associate Professor and Department Head
Department of Linguistics
534 Fletcher Argue Building
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg
Manitoba R3T 2N2

(204) 474-7081
janzent at cc.umanitoba.ca
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~janzent/

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