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In: Notes from the Linguistic Underground
Author:
Many works on linguistic typology deal in some detail with one or more particular grammatical topics without clearly demonstrating how these relate to other categories or construction types. The Essence of Linguistic Analysis by R. M. W. Dixon presents a framework which connects individual topics in a cogent and coherent way, showing their dependencies and locating each in its place within the overall tapestry of a language.
A clear distinction is made between semantic roles and syntactic functions. And it is held that the basic constituents of a language are lexical elements. Grammatical items serve to link together lexical units. At every level of analysis, the central units are lexical with grammar providing ancillary indicators.
With a foreword by Peter Matthews
Author:
I am a Linguist provides a fascinating account of the academic adventures of multi-faceted linguist, R.M.W. (Bob) Dixon. There is fieldwork (and lengthy grammars) on Dyirbal, Yidiñ and other Aboriginal languages of Australia, the Boumaa dialect of Fijian, and Jarawara from the dense jungles of Amazonia. Theoretical studies include adjective classes, ergativity and complement clauses. There are also detective novels, science fiction stories, and pioneering work on blues and gospel discography. Interspersed with the autobiographical narrative are explanations of how linguistics is a scientific discipline, of the development of universities, of diminishing academic standards, and of the treatment of Aboriginal people in Australia. The book is written in an easy, accessible style with numerous illustrative anecdotes. It will be an inspiration to young linguists and of interest to the general reader curious about what a scientific linguist does.

Author:

Abstract

The chapter begins with a background account of the author’s experience of working with languages where there is a range of people who speak it fluently—Fijian from the South Pacific, Jarawara from the Amazonian jungle, and Dyirbal and Yidiñ from Australia. This involves recording, transcribing and analysing texts, and learning the language through participant observation, with little recourse to elicitation. It then focuses on the quite different methodology which has to be followed when documenting a language which has not been actively spoken for several decades and is just remembered by one or two old people who are not be able to record texts. The linguist can now only pursue judicious elicitation. Dixon explains how he worked with the last guardians of three Australian languages—Mbabaram, Warrgamay, and Nyawaygi—and of how a different fieldwork technique had to be followed for each language. This was related to the personality and commitment of the speaker, and the context in which the research was conducted.

In: The Art of Language
Volume Editors: and
This book contributes to opening up disciplinary knowledge and offering connections between different approaches to language in contemporary linguistics. Rather than focusing on a particular single methodology or theoretical assumption, the volume presents part of the wealth of linguistic knowledge as an intertwined project, which combines numerous practices, positionalities and perspectives. The editors believe¸ together with the contributors to this volume¸ that it is a crucial and timely task to emphasize the relevance of linguistic knowledge on power, hospitality, social class, marginalization, mobility, history, secrecy, the structures of discourse, and the construction of meaning, as knowledge that needs to be brought together – as it is brought together in personal discussions, conversations and encounters. To work along traces of linguistic connectivity, marginalized narratives, in and on lesser studied (often stigmatized) language practices and to shed light on the tasks of linguistics in making diverse knowledges transparent—this offers spaces for critical discussion on the ethics of linguistics, its challenges, contributions and tasks. These are the approaches that are characteristic for the work of Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, to whom this book is dedicated.
In: I am a Linguist
In: I am a Linguist
In: Language at Large
In: Language at Large
In: Language at Large