Fieldwork and Language Documentation

The Berkeley Linguistics Department has been committed to the description of under-documented languages since its inception. Following the lead of Murray B. Emeneau and Mary Haas - and often drawing on the materials they generated - our faculty, graduate students and affiliates continue to contribute to the documentation and analysis of Californian languages (cf. Survey of California and Other Indian Languages). Not to be limited to the local context, however, others of our fieldworkers conduct research in Southeast Asia, Africa, Central America, Mexico. At Berkeley, language documentation often goes hand in hand with language revitalization, inspired by Leanne Hinton, whose work in language revitalization is a model of reciprocal benefit for both linguist and language community.

We consider it a priority of our graduate program to train students in eliciting and analysing primary data through work with native speakers of under-documented languages. At the core of this training is the compulsory, two-semester Field Methods course. Here students learn and apply the techniques and methodologies of linguistic fieldwork, and put into practice the range of skills (from phonetics to pragmatics) required to analyze any unfamiliar language on its own terms. Many Field Methods participants continue their research on the language studied beyond the conclusion of the course.

It is largely due to this deep engagement with primary research that the work of Berkeley faculty and students in theoretical subdisciplines is recognized for its strong empirical foundation. Our graduate students regularly win grants at both the UC Berkeley and national levels to support their fieldwork.

Recent fieldwork