Word Hunters: Field Linguists on Fieldwork

Eleven distinguished linguists reflect on their career-spanning linguistic fieldwork. Over decades, each has repeatedly stood up to physical, intellectual, interpersonal, intercultural, and sometimes political challenges in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. These scholar-explorers have enlightene...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sarvasy, Hannah (R19492), Forker, Diana
Other Authors: The MARCS Institute (Host institution)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Netherlands, John Benjamins Publishing 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwsau/detail.action?docID=5267565
http://handle.westernsydney.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:51431
Description
Summary:Eleven distinguished linguists reflect on their career-spanning linguistic fieldwork. Over decades, each has repeatedly stood up to physical, intellectual, interpersonal, intercultural, and sometimes political challenges in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. These scholar-explorers have enlightened the world to the inner workings of languages in remote communities of Africa (West, East, and South), Amazonia, the Arctic, Australia, the Caucasus, Oceania, Siberia, and East Asia. They report some linguistic eureka moments, but also discuss cultural missteps, illness, and the other challenges of pursuing linguistic data in extreme circumstances. They write passionately about language death and their responsibilities to speech communities. The stories included here--the stuff of departmental and family legends--are published publicly for the first time.